Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola has told the Australian government that Fiji is deeply concerned with Australia looking for a Melanesian solution for its asylum seeker problem.

While opening the Australia Fiji Business Council meeting in Brisbane today, Ratu Inoke said Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has also said that the government is decidedly less than happy about Australia’s plan to move asylum seekers seeking to settle in Australia into Melanesia.

Ratu Inoke said the Australian government has used its economic muscle to persuade one of the Melanesian governments to accept thousands of people who are not Pacific Islanders, a great number of them permanently.

He said this was done without any consultation, a sudden and unilateral announcement, which is not the Pacific Way and has shocked a great many people in the region.

Ratu Inoke said although Australia may question why this is Fiji’s business, he said the Fijian government regards it as its business because Fiji sees itself as part of a wider Melanesian community through the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

He said the asylum seeker deal with PNG and those mooted with Solomon Islands and Vanuatu clearly threatens the interests of the Melanesians by altering the fundamental social fabric of any member country that accepts a deal with Australia.

Ratu Inoke Kubuabola said Fiji is alarmed to read some of the accounts of what is evidently being canvassed in Australian policy circles.

One report has been quoted saying - imagine what the South Pacific would be like in five or six years time if there are 50,000 resettled refugees in PNG, and perhaps 10,000 in Vanuatu, 5,000 in Solomon Islands and a few thousands elsewhere in the Pacific.

It said these refugees would be Iranians, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Palestinians, perhaps some Sudanese and Somalis, and most of them getting some Australian financial support.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees has also warned that settling subsidized asylum seekers in PNG under the deal could spark local resentment among a population already suffering significant disadvantage, thus leading to instability.

Ratu Inoke stressed that thorough regional consultation is needed on this issue.

He said this is not Fiji’s want, but a demand for the voices of the Melanesian people to be heard.
 
He said instead of treating the Pacific nations as equals, the Australian decision makers too often ignore the interests and concerns of the people in the region and take it for granted that the Pacific countries will accede to Australia’s wishes and demands.

The Australia Fiji Business Forum opening was also attended by Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs Matt Thistlethwaite.

Ratu Inoke said in spite of the political differences between Fiji and Australia, the Fijian government remains committed to facilitating and encouraging Australian businesses to reach their fullest potential in Fiji.

He said Fiji is open and always ready for business.

 
Story by: Vijay Narayan