FIJI failed for a second consecutive year to show overall progress against human trafficking and secured no convictions, despite identifying 61 victims and opening more investigations, the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report said.
The report kept the Pacific island nation on the Tier 2 Watch List, citing gaps in accountability, victim screening and protection.
The government initiated five investigations during the reporting period: three involving labour trafficking, one sex trafficking and one unspecified exploitation, up from two labour-trafficking investigations in the previous period. It opened no new prosecutions, while two earlier cases continued. Courts convicted no traffickers for the second year running.
“Official complicity and corruption undermined anti-trafficking efforts and allowed traffickers to operate with impunity,” the report said.
Authorities reported investigating immigration officials allegedly involved in improper visa issuance and continued investigating two senior officials over alleged misconduct involving work permits. No prosecutions or disciplinary actions were initiated against the two officials during the period.
The report highlighted allegations involving the Grace Road Group, a religious organisation operating businesses in several sectors. Fiji’s Human Trafficking Unit opened an investigation after members were reported to show indicators of forced labour, and authorities inspected associated worksites.
The report said victims associated with the organisation described excessive working hours without rest days, physical violence, confiscated passports and unpaid wages.
Authorities also investigated the improper issuance of a Fijian passport to the child of an organisation leader, who left the country with the child.
The allegations prompted the minister of home affairs and immigration to step aside temporarily and the suspension of the immigration department’s director, the report said. It added that Fiji had not responded appropriately to Interpol Red Notices for four leaders linked to related allegations.
Despite public reporting on suspected forced labour in the organisation since at least 2018, the government had not prosecuted or convicted anyone over the allegations.
The report said Fiji identified 61 trafficking victims, including 59 labour-trafficking victims, one sex-trafficking victim and one victim of unspecified exploitation, compared with eight labour-trafficking victims in the previous reporting period.
All 61 were referred to services, including safe housing for 56. But victim-identification procedures developed with an international organisation were awaiting ministerial approval and were not implemented during the period; officials also failed to screen vulnerable groups consistently.
Two immigration safehouses intended for trafficking victims were undergoing renovations and unusable during the reporting period.
Observers said the government could not provide adequate housing for people with disabilities and adult male victims, while a shortage of interpretation services limited foreign victims’ access to psychosocial care.
Victims often relied on non-governmental organisations for most services and support.
The report also highlighted risks across Fiji’s tourism, labour, and island communities. Taxi drivers or other facilitators transported Fijian child sex-trafficking victims to hotels in tourist areas or to private yachts for foreign tourists seeking commercial sex, it said.
Foreign yacht owners and people hiring locally owned yachts were reported to seek young women, usually children, on rural islands; some were later exploited in forced labour or sex trafficking.
Migrant workers from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines were reported vulnerable to labour trafficking in informal farms and factories, construction and timber. Authorities investigated a construction company after reports of employment violations with forced-labour indicators involving 34 Bangladeshi workers.
Separately, a 2023 prevalence study found about 20% of respondents had experienced or knew someone who experienced trafficking indicators across a range of sectors, including construction, agriculture, fisheries and hospitality.
The report said natural disasters and climate-related displacement also increased vulnerability by disrupting livelihoods and shelter.
It recommended Fiji approve and implement victim-identification procedures, strengthen investigations and prosecutions, improve shelters and services, and finalise and fund its 2026 national action plan.