Fiji in Danger of Ongoing Migration

Fiji is under threat from ongoing migration abroad, says former director for Fiji Council of Social Services, Mohammed Hazan Khan.

Mr Khan said the rising rate of local migration to other countries was a reflection of a lack of social appeal. He was speaking yesterday during the creation of the National Development Plan (NDP).

“The current continuation of migration is very alarming, this is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately collectively by civil society organisations, government and other stakeholders,” Mr Khan said.

“There is a solution to this and it must come from people themselves through consultation.

“To implement the recommendations, it will lead towards progress. How the outcome will look like depends on the engagement of people during consultations,” Mr Khan said.

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Moreover, Country Engagement Advisor, Family Planning, Jofiliti Veikoso said the health sector was important when it came to NDP.

“From a developing country like Fiji, health system is important to uphold, the health system needs attention and improvement,” Mr Veikoso said.

“For example, Global Fund was one of the biggest donors on working against HIV/ AIDS in Fiji, and then they pulled out, with the current rise of HIV cases, Global Fund came back on board.

“We must not always rely on donors, we need to take ownership and be resilient, when Global Fund pulled out, the section that looked after HIV cases was unstable, hence that might be the reason of increase in sexual related health diseases,” Mr Veikoso said.

He said health awareness was a must when national development planning was done, not only in sexual health related diseases but in other aspects of health too.

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