Fiji is prepared to take unpopular steps to protect vulnerable groups, especially as the drug issue in Fiji helps the sex industry thrive.
Minister for Women Lynda Tabuya stressed this point during an interview with The Fiji Times on Wednesday last week, while responding to queries related to the deportation of controversial OnlyFans creators, Bonnie Blue and Annie Knight.
Ms Tabuya said the women were preying on young people for their own benefit.
However, she said the sex trade “literally comes with the territory”.
“Where there’s drug trade, there’s sex trade; they go hand in hand,” she said.
“So it’s going hand in hand together.
“We have this drug issue in Fiji and the Pacific, and sex tourism will come with it. So we’ve got to be able to look at both together and tackle them both together, and it’s a lot on the plate of the Ministry for Defence and Minister Pio Tikoduadua, but he’s doing his best.
“But again, he should not be alone in this. We have to have a collaborative effort amongst line ministries to come together and say, whenever anything like this happens, we sit and we mobilise and we see how we can stop it.”
Ms Tabuya said she was aware of the two creators and their history, following the cancellation of their Australian visas and she had sounded the alarm with Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua.
“I want to thank honourable Pio Tikoduadua for taking such a bold step and acting swiftly.
“Once they were sent out of Australia, they came to Fiji. And of course, they were touting the same message.
“We’ve got to be able to take action. So it was a bold action. It was unpopular because a lot of people were speaking against it.
“But again, we need to be able to take unpopular steps to protect our most vulnerable.”
