Government moves to tighten immigration laws

The Government has taken decisive steps to strengthen Fiji’s immigration laws to protect Fijians from emerging threats associated with transnational crimes, while promoting transparency and accountability in immigration services.

Following nation-wide consultation, the Office of the Attorney-General yesterday received the final review reports of the Immigration Act 2003, Passport Act 2002 and the Citizenship of Fiji Act 2009 – legislations that form the foundation and framework of Fiji’s immigration law.

“These reports represent a significant step forward in Fiji’s journey to modernise its immigration system in line with national priorities and global best practices,” Acting Attorney-General Siromi Turaga said.

Ministry of Immigration permanent secretary Aliki Salusalu said the three Acts were outdated, and did not address the modern migration trend, which could lead to “operational inefficiencies and create risks to the security vulnerabilities and compliance violations”.

“The enactment of this mandate into law will strengthen national security and protect the integrity of our borders, improve passport and identity assurance systems, clarify and modernise citizenship processes, enhance compliance enforcement and investigation capabilities, streamline measures and permit processing to support both security and economic development, and enable digital transformation and automated service delivery to the public.”

Mr Turaga hopes that through the draft Bill, that is to be tabled next year, there will be significant changes in immigration services.

The reports were compiled by the Fiji Law Reform Commission, Ministry of Immigration and the International Organisation for Migration.

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