The New Zealand government has agreed to lift transit visa requirements for Fijians travelling through New Zealand, says New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Speaking during a media conference in Suva yesterday, Mr Luxon said the NZ Cabinet recently agreed to lift the visa transit requirements.
“I was very pleased to announce that the New Zealand Cabinet has agreed to lift transit visa requirements for Fijians travelling through New Zealand and instead Fiji nationals will be able to transit via New Zealand with our standard transit New Zealand Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA),” Mr Luxon said.
He said the removal of those requirements would significantly reduce the barriers to regional travel, facilitating regional integration and reducing the barriers for businesses and other Pacific countries, many of which rely on Fijian labour.
“The transit visa removal was a major irritant and something we’ve heard very loud and clear since our government came into power.
“It was very important to me that we remove that because, many Fijians transit to other parts of the world to do business through Auckland, and we need to make that much more seamless.
“The second issue was one around visitor visas and we’ve heard that issue has also got some complexity to it as we think about the broader set of immigration settings in New Zealand.
“But we are committed to reviewing that situation and both Winston Peters and myself have taken that on board.
“That might take us a bit of time to work through so don’t want to raise expectations but we’ve certainly heard the concerns.”
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka welcomed NZ’s decision and said the move would benefit Fijians seeking to further their education in New Zealand while also easing travelling through NZ to other countries.
“We all know that ever since our colonial days, New Zealand has been a major cultural development partner,” Mr Rabuka said.
“A lot of people need to go to New Zealand for education and to move on to the rest of the world, now they made it a lot easier for us as the transit visa requirements will no longer be there.”
No date has been confirmed on when the changes would come into effect.
