Dan Urai is absolutely correct in his comments regarding working conditions of expatriates within the tourism and hospitality industry (FT:24/12).

It is understood by many that a condition of any expatriate contracted to work in Fiji is that he or she must train a local to take up the position after the end of their contracted term, which in most cases is between two and three years.

After spending most of my career in the industry I can confirm without a doubt that this is more a myth than a reality.

Today we even have positions which do not involve any form of management being filled by expatriates. These can easily be handled by locals.

If this immigration policy still stands, then here is a great example of a system that is not working at all.

I know of many locals who were starved of better positions and had to go find opportunities abroad. They have done extremely well. So well, in fact, that they have even managed hotels and resorts abroad.

We are by far the most hospitable people in the world and I find it rather sad that our own people are not being supported by tourism investors and Government.

I believe while only a handful of properties are true to the policy, the majority are not. They are either not bothering at all or are working around the system.

It’s about time Government updates the policy to include stringent procedures and follow up.

We are robbing our own people of much-needed employment, careers and a decent livelihood.