Fiji to retain border data control

Australia will have no “backdoor” access to Fiji’s immigration data when the country’s new border management system goes live next year, the Ministry of Immigration has assured.

Permanent Secretary for Immigration Aliki Salusalu said Fiji would fully own and operate the Migration Enforcement and Response Intelligence Tool (MERIT), which is being introduced through Fiji’s partnership with Australia.

Questions were raised over whether strengthening Fiji’s border management system would require the country to integrate its passport, visa and entry databases with Australian border tracking networks.

Mr Salusalu said the system would be built and handed over to the Fiji Government for operation by the Ministry of Immigration.

“It will be a fully closed system. When they hand over the system to us, it will be fully owned by the Fiji Government. We'll operate it within the premises of the Ministry of Immigration and there will be no linkages in terms of the information as part of the Privacy Act,” he said.

He said there would also be no “backdoor” access to the system.

“The information sharing for us is not really that they're going to be looking into our system and there will be no backdoor to the system for anyone that can access the system without our knowledge.”

Through the Vuvale Partnership, the ministry is adopting MERIT to replace the Integrated Border Management System (IBMS).

Mr Salusalu said the existing IBMS had limitations, including delays in addressing border issues because of the time difference with its support team in Sri Lanka.

He said MERIT would provide more timely support because Fiji and its support team would be operating in the same time zone.

“The new MERIT system, we are on the same time zone and the support will be quite timely in terms of addressing issues at the border.”

The ministry is expected to go live with the MERIT system in January 2027.