Latest Fiji expulsion ‘reeks of authoritarianism’

FIJI – A Canadian citizen deported from Fiji last week for allegedly swearing at the country’s president denies she did so.

Karen Seaton was deported just hours after protesting about land laws at parliament and denies swearing at the president saying she would “never do such a thing”.

The government said she breached the terms of her residency permit by using the “F-word” against Jioji Konrote.

Fiji media reports that Seaton was declared a “prohibited immigrant” by the Acting Prime Minister and Immigration Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Seaton holds a Fiji residency permit, but was deported just hours after appearing before a parliamentary select committee last week.

She was taken from her Suva hotel on Friday night by immigration officials and forced onto a plane to Los Angeles without any explanation.

“They broke into the room and at that point I made a formal request for an ambassador. It was denied,” she said.

“They forcibly twisted my arm to remove my phone from me and they forcibly took my purse from me to take my passports. At one point I asked why was I being deported and they said it’s ‘from the highest authority in the nation’.”

Seaton had made a verbal submission to the Justice Law and Order and Human Rights Committee on behalf of expatriate landowners affected by changes to the Land Sales Act.

Act 16 requires all non-resident land owners to construct a US$120,000 dwelling by the end of the year or pay a fine every six months equal to 10 percent of the value of their land.

Seaton’s submission had been facilitated by the former opposition leader Mick Beddoes.

He said Act 16 applied retrospectively to all non-resident land owners when it was introduced in 2014.

“Most of these people are abroad and they’re planning to come and retire on their plots of land that they bought for their retirement and we all know that retirees don’t have a whole swag of money,” Beddoes said.

“This idea of forcing people to build a quarter of a million dollar home when if you’re retiring in the countryside you need a nice, comfortable little cottage that would probably cost you less than half of that.

“And why would you penalise a group of people and not apply it across the board to everybody? That is just unjust and unfair.”

About 5000 expat property owners are represented by the Fiji Land Owners Association.

US-based founder Dave Rand said Act 16 targeted mostly white land owners as well as Fiji’s property market.

“There’s another motive far more sinister than what would appear on the surface and that was to artificially crash a real estate market and then get people to conduct a fire sale which is going on now.

“Places are being sold for a fraction of the value they were 10 years ago and low and, behold, the people that are scooping up the properties in this fire sale are mostly Chinese and local Fijians, or Chinese going through local Fijians to avoid any circumstances going forward,” Rand said.

Beddoes said wealthy Fijians would buy up the land sold by expats as he suspected the government would soon relax restrictions of land sales abroad.

“They are forcing the sale of this land to locals and only certain locals can buy it. It wouldn’t surprise me that before the 2018 general election a new bill will come in to relax the restriction of selling abroad – and that’s just daylight robbery.”

An opposition party leader Sitiveni Rabuka said the deportation of Seaton is “shameful” and the misuse of laws and hounding of critics must stop.

He has called on Sayed-Khaiyum to explain why he declared Seaton a prohibited immigrant and said the government’s practice of making decisions to silence critics and then hiding behind civil servants must stop.

Fiji’s National Federation Party also said the latest deportation of a foreigner in Fiji is deeply worrying.

Tupou Draunidalo has called for the removal of what she calls the excessive powers of the immigration minister as they infringe basic rights.

She said acting Prime Minister and Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, was responsible yet he – as Minister for the Economy – also tells the world Fiji is great for business.

Draunidalo said Seaton’s deportation comes on top of the deportation in September of roading consultants.

She said the NFP will also fight for Fiji academic Brij Lal and his wife Padma Lal to be allowed back into Fiji.

They have been blacklisted and exiled in Australia for several years.

“Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is fully responsible for these and must inform the people of Fiji as to why he feels the need to be authoritarian in declaring individuals persona non grata, without much of a thought,” Tupou Draunidalo said.

- RNZI