INTRODUCTION
Migrant workers are helping to fill Fiji’s labour shortage, but many are doing so without being paid. For many migrants drawn to this island nation’s booming construction sites and resorts, the promise of a better livelihood has turned into a struggle against wage theft and abuse. Fiji’s Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission reports dozens of complaints since 2020 from migrant workers facing unpaid wages, verbal harassment from employers, and even being stranded far from home when faced with trouble (Nand, 2025). Over 6,000 of these workers work primarily in construction, tourism, and agriculture, helping to fill labour shortages. The need for labour and the migrants’ need to work allow employers to overlook their inherent rights (Nand, 2025).
A QUIET STRUGGLE FOR FAIR PAY
The ordeal of 26 Bangladeshi supermarket workers earlier this year made visible what had long been in the shadows. For months, they were paid nothing at all, leaving them without food or means to send money home, while their employers allegedly threatened them with deportation or even jail if they spoke up (Prasad, 2025). Many had already arrived indebted, having paid up to 12,000 Fijian Dollars (FJ$) in recruitment fees that they had financed through loans (Prasad, 2025). With no salary coming in, their debt snowballed and psychological distress set in; some were driven to the brink of self-harm as hope dwindled (Prasad, 2025).
It was only after 13thirteen13 of these workers lodged complaints with the Human Rights Commission that Fiji’s authorities stirred. The Commission demanded that the employer provide immediate food and essentials, and Fiji’s Prime Minister even personally visited the workers, ordering an investigation (Prasad, 2025). As shocking as it was, the supermarket case is not an isolated incident. Instead, it epitomises the “quiet struggle” of many migrant labourers, whose exploitation often goes unreported.
Globally, it ranks among the most prevalent abuses faced by migrant workers. A recent analysis found that wage theft is the single most common issue in reported migrant labour cases worldwide, appearing in over one-third of documented instances (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2025).
Despite this incident, recruiters portray Fiji as a land of opportunity, but upon arrival, some migrants find that their employers withhold wages, confiscate passports, or impose exorbitant deductions from their pay. As per the United States (U.S.) State Department’s trafficking assessment notes, labour traffickers indeed exploit Asian migrants, especially in the construction industry (US Department of State, 2024). In Fiji’s case, many of the affected are from South and East Asia; countries like Bangladesh, China, and the Philippines are drawn by Fiji’s labour demand and relatively higher wages than they have at home.
CLEAR POWER IMBALANCE
Subsequently, why are migrant workers so vulnerable to wage theft in Fiji? The answer is in the structural power imbalances and opaque labour arrangements that govern their employment. With work permits tied to specific employers, migrants are rendered dependent and vulnerable, becoming fearful that speaking out could cost them their employment. In the Bangladeshi workers’ case, men were warned not to report their plight to authorities under threat of imprisonment, an intimidation tactic that preys on their precarious position (Prasad, 2025).
The language barrier becomes another obstacle that silences migrant workers. Their contracts, written in foreign languages like English or Fijian, are often not fully understood, allowing employers to waive rights or omit details about the employment (International Organisation for Migration , 2022). A representative of Fiji’s Human Rights Commission lamented that many migrant labourers simply “lack awareness of contract terms and conditions”, making it easy for employers to defy agreements with impunity (Nand, 2025).
One Fijian union leader bluntly noted that wage theft is not a one-off lapse by a bad apple, but a habitual practice by certain employers who “exploit their workers and deprive them of just wages” through routine underpayment (Fiji Trades Union Congress, 2025). Many employers bank on the fact that migrant workers are unlikely to challenge them. Studies indicate that the vast majority of unpaid migrant workers globally never recover the wages they are owed through any official process (Migrant Justice Institute, 2021). Whether out of fear, legal obstacles, or lack of resources, most suffer in silence. This harsh reality effectively grants de facto immunity to wage thieves and perpetuates a cycle: exploitation begets more exploitation as word spreads among unscrupulous businesses that migrants are “cheap and compliant” labourers.
EXISTING LAWS, POLICIES AND THEIR LIMITATIONS
Fiji’s Labour Code has long acknowledged that denying wages is illegal, yet for years it relegated such violations to civil forums where under-resourced migrants faced off against well-funded employers and time itself became an adversary (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2025). The result is predictable: most workers, often repatriated or deported before hearings conclude, walk away empty-handed, worn down by bureaucratic procedures and mounting debt (Berg & Farbenblum, 2023, p. 30).
Momentum, however, is changing. Inspired by Australia’s ten-year prison terms for deliberate underpayment and New Zealand’s 2025 criminal statute, Fijian unions and rights advocates have reframed wage theft as straightforward larceny and demanded penalties to match (Fiji Trades Union Congress, 2025). Draft amendments now before Parliament would fine repeat offenders up to FJ$100,000, pierce the corporate veil to chase delinquent directors personally, and reserve prison for the most brazen cheats (Fiji Trades Union Congress, 2025).
Yet, laws on paper are only the beginning. Without enforcement, they offer little real protection. Deterrence will turn on strong inspections, multilingual complaint windows, and rapid inter-agency coordination qualities as glimpsed when the Human Rights Commission intervened in the Bangladeshi supermarket scandal, securing food and shelter, and prompting the Prime Minister’s on-site pledge of justice (Nand, 2025; Prasad, 2025).
If the Fijian Parliament commits to criminal sanctions with genuine attempts at enforcement, Fiji may finally replace the hollow promises it has made with a concrete and credible warning. Therefore, wages that go unpaid will be treated as stolen property, and those who steal from migrant workers must face the law.
CONCLUSION
Fiji’s new towers rise on migrant labour, yet withheld wages undermine that progress. A South Asian mother waits for a remittance that never comes; a young man in a Nadi dormitory skips meals while his pay is “delayed” again. This reality violates the pledge that “all workers…are treated fairly and humanely” (Nand, 2025). Criminalising wage theft is necessary, but its worth will be judged by inspections, prosecutions, and whether migrants can report abuses without fear. Until every shift is paid fully and on time, Fiji cannot claim to value both growth and dignity. But with real commitment, the two can move forward together.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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