"Nurses get in there, including those who are trained by various institutions in caregiving; they're the ones we are losing, unless they slip through," he said.
Unskilled rural dwellers will now be given priority focus in the migrant labour scheme, the Minister for Employment and Productivity Agni Deo Singh said yesterday.
It followed revelations that his ministry was under strict instructions to tighten screening processed, following mounting concerns that thousands of Fijians – a large portion being skilled professionals – had migrated for better work conditions.
“The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme was designed for unskilled rural people,” Mr Singh said.
“We have reminded our people to pay close attention to this.”
Mr Singh said the only “secured” people migrating through National Employment Centre (NEC) were caregivers.
“Nurses get in there, including those who are trained by various institutions in caregiving; they’re the ones we are losing, unless they slip through,” he said.
Teachers leaving their local professions to join the meat sector abroad was a fallacy; Mr Singh said.
“That was before … ,” he said.
Australian and New Zealand authorities will soon to be tasked to give back to Fiji for exporting thousands of Fijian workers.
Mr Singh was reacting to mounting concerns over the thousands of Fijians who migrated, leaving a vacuum in the local workforce.
“We want them to pay us to train and keep our people here.
“We are meeting with Australia and New Zealand – as beneficiaries of our NEC system – to seek assistance with these programmes,” Mr Singh said.
“It is high time they start contributing to our training programmes.
“Take for example, the Australian Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), they can’t tell us they’re investing for training for Fiji.
“We want funding assistance for us to have those additional intakes in our institutions.”
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