HOME Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua says there is a need to strike a balance between economic opportunities and national security, especially as criminals posing as investors are potential risks to the country.
He said this in response to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report titled Transnational Organised Crime in the Pacific: Expansion, Challenges and Impact, which outlined the Pacific’s vulnerability to organised crime groups seeking favourable operating conditions in the region.
“We have to strike a balance between economic opportunities versus national security,” Mr Tikoduadua said.
“But this is part of the reform of immigration, particularly trying to make sure that people who do not need to come here, (we) need to catch them at the border or before they even come.
“That is part of the review of the Immigration Act that we are doing, part of enhancing the capacities to be able to do this, detect people when they come through, working with our agencies.”
He said the review would also try to understand information about people who come through the country, and invest in advanced passenger information systems to keep those with impure intentions out.
“That’s all part of this, this reform that immigration is doing because we recognise that there are bad people who will also come.”
According to the UNODC report, organised crime groups operating in the Pacific region sought favourable operating conditions with limited interference and oversight into their various business activities.
“Law enforcement reports from authorities in and around the Pacific region indicate that organised crime groups originating from Asian countries are perceived to be among the most active in the PICTs (Pacific Island Countries and Territories),” the report said.
“These groups are known to engage in a far broader range of criminality, including drug trafficking, trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, as well as related forgery, money laundering, and crimes that affect the environment.
“They are highly entrepreneurial and innovative in nature, leveraging vast networks of loose business connections to move commodities, people, and value across jurisdictions with little oversight.”
The report also said these crime groups from East and Southeast Asia targeted the Pacific for more sophisticated crime types including cyber-enabled fraud, illegal online gambling and junkets-based money laundering.
