Vanuatu's Deputy Prime Minister says regional labour mobility schemes mean "a significant number of children in the Pacific do not live with their biological parents". Photo: UNICEF/Naftalin
Pacific Islands children are being left behind by their parents, who are taking up opportunities presented by regional labour mobility schemes, increasing concerns about child abuse.
Seasonal work causing division among Pacific families
This was a key issue brought up at a regional forum in Port Vila this week, where stakeholders highlighted that many children were being raised by their grandparents, while their parents leave their home nation's for seasonal employment in Australia and New Zealand.
Speaking at the Protecting Children in the Context of Labour Mobility conference, Vanuatu's Deputy Prime Minister Matai Seremaiah said many children in the Pacific no longer live with their parents because the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme in New Zealand or the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) schemes.
"A significant number of children in the Pacific do not live with their biological parents, or primary caregivers, which in some cases may heighten the risk of neglect, abuse and exploitation," Seremaiah said.
Vanuatu is the largest supplier of labour to Australia and New Zealand, accounting for over 35 percent (over 16,500) seasonal workers.
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According to a 2023 analysis by the Devpolicy Blog, a total of almost 48,000 visas were issued to workers participating in the PALM and RSE scheme between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023.
The numbers "virtually double the 24,975 visas issued in 2018-19, the last full year of recruitment pre-COVID," researcher Charlotte Bedford wrote.
Seremaiah said there needs to be pre-departure support programmes for parents and systems of support during deployments.
He said despite financial benefits the scheme provides, children without parents may adopt "risky behaviour", such as alcohol and drug abuse.
"There is a strong emotional impact on children from being separated from one's biological parents or primary caregivers," he said.
Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) director Leonard Louma said the impact these labour migration schemes have on children is poorly researched.
"But the anecdotal evidence is very clear: our children suffer.
"This applies both to labour mobility within our respective national boundaries and labour mobility under the PALM and other Pacific labour schemes offered to islanders in Australia and New Zealand," Louma said.
He said children whose parents leave on working deployments risk losing contact with their cultural heritage, often have worse educational outcomes and are more vulnerable to abuse.
"With regard to those that go abroad, I urge receiving countries to do more to ensure that their labour schemes do take into account the need to promote and protect the welfare of children."
Vanuatu's Deputy Prime Minister Matai Seremaiah Photo: Facebook / Unicef Pacific
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) chief of child protection in the Pacific, Michael Copland, said children who end up in institutional care in the region normally come from single parent households.
He said there is now an increasing burden of care on women in raising children, including mothers, grandmothers and teenagers.
The conference comes ahead of the release of a study later this month on the impacts of children left behind in the Pacific.
The study was conducted by The University of the South Pacific, Western Sydney University and Unicef.
Fiji's minister of employment Agni Deo Singh was critical about the schemes in general.
Singh said Fiji pays to train its population, then Australia and New Zealand takes the working population for its labour schemes.
"In Fiji, we have a terrible shortage of professionals and trades people and our economies affected, unfortunately the receiving countries are not assisting us in any way."
He said what is promised to workers in Fiji is not the reality on the ground, with workers being cramped into small rooms and wages being less than expected.
The Australian government updated the PALM scheme and has committed, beginning in March 2024, to allow workers on long-term placements - between one and four years - to bring their families to Australia, with the agreement of their employer.
The pilot family reunification program will support up to 200 families of long-term PALM scheme workers to temporarily reside in Australia.