Fiji’s Ambassador to Japan, Filimone Waqabaca emphasizes the vital role that border security plays in the country’s development and the serious effects that drug trafficking and corruption have on the nation’s economy, security, and future generations.

While opening the border control training held at the Naval base in Walu, the Ambassador highlights that drug use might impede economic expansion by lowering labour force productivity.

Waqabaca emphasizes the need to maintain a productive society while many people rely on the work done by border agents in order to ensure that citizens’ earnings meet the cost of living.

“That farmer who toils in the sun and rain to make a living, that lady that sells vegetables and food from a stall in front of her village, that student that crosses the river every day to go to school with the hope that one day he will walk on a bridge, that man that sells peanuts at the traffic lights, that fisherman in the maritime zone who sometimes, despite adverse weather warnings, still goes out to fish for the survival of the family depends on it.”

Waqabaca reiterates how important it is for border agents to demonstrate honesty, passion, and patriotism in their work.

He advised them to stick to the principles and ethics that characterize their character, despite the difficulties and temptations they would encounter.