Young women are being trafficked and exploited by local drug lords, says Minister for Women Lynda Tabuya.
Speaking to this newspaper, Ms Tabuya provided the example of the two OnlyFans pornography creators who were booted out of Fiji because of their plans to shoot porn with Australian schoolies.
“Now, this was done very visibly, because she (Bonnie Blue) went online visibly,” Ms Tabuya said.
“But we have the local porn industry that is working quietly and doing porn videos and posting it up and preying on young people.
“I mean, look at the trafficking of our young people, it’s almost every week we’re seeing a missing person, and they are usually young girls. So where do they go missing?
“So, I’ve done some investigation from the ministry to ask these young girls where they go and they tell us it’s actually part of the drug trade. So for example, a drug lord will want a young girl for his entertainment. He will send one of his drug peddlers to go and get a young girl, lure her to come. So she’s missing for a few days. She goes and she’s with this drug lord and entertaining him, including sex and bribing her with all sorts of gadgets and things and giving her money, then returns her home.
“Young girls are getting involved in this, and they’re getting paid for it. It is exploitation, it is sex trafficking, and it’s happening in our country because of the drug trade.”
Ms Tabuya said she understood there was institutional corruption that needed to be addressed fast, but it was not an issue that a single agency or ministry could deal with.
“Honourable Pio Tikoduadua should not be fighting this alone. It’s got to be all of us together to come together and say, how do we deal with this institutional corruption?
“How do we remove it and there are ways to do it. So as a result, we formed a sub-committee to Cabinet on drugs, and it’s actually chaired by the Prime Minister.”
Ms Tabuya said the committee also had the Ministries of Women, Health and Education, Home Affairs, iTaukei Affairs, and Youth and Sports.
“This is how important this issue is, about drugs. So when we sit together, we said, OK, we are now on this highest level to make decisions about the issues on drugs. So it’s coming together.
“We are guided by and looking at what the National Counter Narcotics Strategy and see the work that they’re doing, but it has to come to that highest level, and it takes political will to make these decisions.
“It’s work in progress, but we’re doing our best.”
