Sexual Exploitation of Children Pounds Fiji Hard

Save the Children Fiji has discovered that the more tourists come into the country, the greater the chances are of local children being sexually exploited.

Fund chief executive Irshad Ali, when addressing the Society of Fiji Travel Associates on Friday, said although the continuously growing tourism industry was a significant achievement for Fijis economy, they found children were exploited in this sector.

In the Save the Children Fijis analysis on commercial sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children in Fiji, Mr. Ali said children took take advantage of the industry to fend for themselves.

He said it was crucial to train service providers in the industry on issues and occurrence of commercial sexual exploitation of children. He said that would enable people, especially hotel staff who deal day to day with tourists, to identify risk factors, behavior and develop policies for the protection of children.

“This will empower service providers to report suspicious activities involving children and, therefore, effect a positive change to this disturbing trend.”

Mr. Ali said there was a case in a resort in Fiji where a tourist had checked in with four to five local children. The hotel staff were unaware of what was happening until they heard of the man being caught in another country.

“The staff members said there was nothing suspicious and sinister about the tourists action because he was kind to the children and he took great care of them during their stay at the hotel.”

He said while his research team found a significant number of perpetrators were male, they found women often acting as agents. Mr. Ali said in their research, they found a small number of foreign residents had been identified in urban areas of Fiji as alleged perpetrators of this abuse.

He said the perpetrators were closely linked to or introduced to middle men who were generally locals like taxi drivers. Mr. Ali said the research team found evidence women acted as agents by arranging meeting points for young and older men for monetary exchange.