Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, 15 August 2024 – Many of our skilled workers have embarked on opportunities abroad, contributing their expertise to global markets and inadvertently spreading the Fijian brand further.
We love this for them.
But while their ventures abroad are commendable, they leave a noticeable gap in Fiji’s workforce that needs to be filled.
That’s where the current immigration landscape becomes a challenge.
The intricate and often outdated procedures for bringing skilled professionals into the country create a bureaucratic maze that often deters skilled professionals, trainers and generally experienced labour that fill positions left in construction, tourism, manufacturing, mining and all areas of IT.
The recent announcement about reviewing Fiji’s immigration laws is therefore welcome news given that our fast-paced move into the future requires us to think about making Fiji an attractive enough destination to work in, especially as we have already entered this future that is driving skills to move faster globally for various reasons.
Historically, economic upheavals, financial disasters, civil, religious and invasive wars, and as we experienced only recently – pandemics, have generally ramped up global labour movements that might otherwise take place at a less frenetic pace that allows countries to better address and replace lost skills.
We now have a chance to tackle the outdated and often nonsensical processes and procedures that have been holding us back from accessing the best skills we can afford.
The review and amendments to our immigration system, which includes the Immigration Act 2003, the Citizenship of Fiji Act 2009, and the Passports Act 2002, would allow us to consider which direction Fiji’s economy could progress if it is serious about diversifying its economic output.
The current cumbersome and outdated acts do not just make it harder for us to bring in the skills we desperately need; they limit our ability to better educate our younger population, deny access to far more exposed experiences and skills that could rejuvenate our creative industries and enhance our forays into the latest technological, engineering and scientific fields.
And it could attract people who have much to give back to the people of Fiji given half the chance because they want to.
Instead, our young people leave looking for these same things overseas and our ageing, uninspiring pool of trainers, instructors and educators must be retained way past their retirement times; ultimately doing more damage than good.
We have a chance to be consulted on this review. This a chance we are often promised but not always provided, so we must use this consultation as an opportunity to push for real change.
It runs from August 9 to September 9, 2024.
Make your voices heard.
The focus is on improving visa and permit categories, revamping passenger movement records, and tightening up migration enforcement.
With sessions planned all over Fiji, from Labasa to Suva, there are lots of ways to weigh in and influence the direction of these reforms, including by submitting your views in writing.
As a vital part of Fiji’s economy, this review of the tourism industry is more than a simple formality.
It’s about making things work better for everyone—from streamlining processes to enhancing the visitor experience because we have seen from very painful past experiences how this has limited our ability to enhance and fast-track training to replace gaps left by labour mobility and recover from post-pandemic losses to ensure we can capture markets that are so expensive for us to sell our branding in.
This experience includes waiting for 3 to 9 months for responses, for denied visas based on trivial reasons, for negligence by border authorities that are never apologized for, and that all ultimately result in the loss to the industry of the best candidates for job openings because of our less than acceptable treatment of foreign workers who we need so desperately.
Certainly not the Fijian way of treating decent people we identified as critical for us to move the industry forward.
And certainly not limited to just our industry.
We are therefore keen to use this chance to push for the changes we need and make sure our immigration system serves us well into the future.
Simplifying visa and permit categories to make it more user-friendly would significantly ease entry for visitors and foreign workers, and we envisage, it to lighten the administrative load on the processing department.
We’re also calling for an overhaul in how we handle passenger records that would better identify formal and informal labour movements, tracking students that do not return and dual passport travel that better reflect real reasons for travel.
Efficient and accurate processing of passenger information is crucial for smooth operations, and we need systems that can keep up with the growing number of travellers, and that can read the newer forms of electronic passports that will align Fiji with international passport control methods.
Additionally, enhancing migration enforcement to prevent fraud and ensure consistent application of policies is essential.
These improvements will not only create a more secure environment but also reinforce the reliability of our immigration system for visitors and employers bringing in foreign workers. Foreign workers might be our only chance to see investment and new developments progress in the direction we are hoping they will
Transformational changes require that we look at the regulations, policies and legislations that guide our focus on ensuring Fiji stays on track for the development plans it sets in place.
Otherwise, they remain dusty volumes of long-term plans that have wasted government time and already limited revenue.
The expectation is clear: this review should bring us in line with 21st-century border security practices with passport control, simplify procedures, cut down on delays, and introduce processes that make sense in today’s fast-paced technology-focused world.
With collaborative effort, hard listening skills and practical as well as creative solutions, there’s a strong sense of optimism that this process will lead to real improvements
Improvements that set the pace for real economic progress.
Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 15 August 2024)
Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association
The Voice of the Industry
