Almost everyone living in the tents along Marine Drive in Lautoka has a home, says Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran.
Speaking to this newspaper, Ms Kiran said a team from the ministry had been assisting with profiling people who were on the streets.
“We have been working with inter-agencies and had profiled about 56 people,” said Ms Kiran.
“Out of them, quite a few are working people, especially those living in the tent, and almost everybody has a home. There’s nobody in that space that is homeless.”
She said the inter-agency collaboration efforts had enabled the ministry to remove the street dwellers residing illegally in public spaces.
“We we have been able to take five girls into our homes and another five are going (on Thursday).
“We also took six boys. These are young people who have been loitering, and one of the young persons has dropped out of school some time ago. We met with his parents yesterday. They said he’s a dropout, and for us to take him in for rehabilitation.”
Ms Kiran said the ministry was working with 16 young people who had been accommodated in different rehabilitation centres.
“Few girls have said they are on addiction, substance addiction, and they want help, so we’re trying to find that assistance for the rehabilitation.
“And some of the young men have been on juvenile, non-juvenile cases and in and out of trouble. So we are working with all of them.”
