Fiji’s military government expels ILO investigation team

The Fijian Government has expelled an ILO delegation that was in Fiji at its invitation to investigate complaints about labour rights abuses. The Fijian government, a military dictatorship, has a longstanding record of rights’ abuses and ruling by decree.
Even though it had pre-agreed terms of reference, during its first meeting the delegation was asked to “desist from its remaining meetings until further notice”. Later the Office of the Prime Minister presented the ILO team with entirely new terms which they considered to be “an unacceptable, significant and serious deviation from the object and purpose of the mission”. The Government’s response was to ask them to leave immediately.
Felix Anthony, general-secretary of the IUF-affiliated FSGWU commented “There cannot be any valid reason for the expulsion.… they were invited to Fiji. Fiji, being a member of the ILO, ought to have respected the delegation’s visit and participated.”
Read ILO’s statement here.