The Immigration Department receives more than 1000 applications for permits every month and most of these are for foreigners applying to work in the local tourism industry.
Director Immigration Amelia Komaisavai said this during a panel discussion at the Fijian Hotel and Tourism Association tourism talanoa symposium on Denarau, Nadi, yesterday. She said the department was actually prioritising this sector, to cater with the labour shortages it currently faced.
She said the permit applicants were from individuals who applied for jobs as chefs – right up to work in the housekeeping department.
“Everyone must have noted the exponential growth of air travel and passenger traffic, and nevertheless, correlating to the labour shortages happening here and in this industry especially,” Ms Komaisavai said.
“We are experiencing that in terms of the high volume of work permits that’s coming. “It’s unprecedented.
“We receive more than 1000 permits every month and that has never happened since the opening of border in December….so that’s permits in terms of every month, like 70 to 80 per cent of those is really work permits.”
Ms Komaisavai said the department continued to improve its internal systems and process to “cater for this big influx that’s happening and most of it is from the tourism industry”.
A few months ago, The Fiji Times had reported that tourism operators were concerned about the large number of qualified chefs leaving Fiji for work abroad.
Hotel operators said if nothing was done to curb the exodus, the issue could hurt the industry and the country.
At a news conference last month, Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fijians chefs with three or more years of experience would have the opportunity to earn salaries overseas in the range of $A80,000 ($F121,759) to $A120,000 ($F182,638).
Speaking at a Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme consultation last week, Employment Minister Parveen Kumar said while the financial and economic rewards were good, the Fijian government was “naturally concerned” about the social impact of labour mobility schemes.
He said there was a backlash from local employers as workers were leaving the company on short notice.
