The opposition in Fiji has called for the suspension of visa free entry for China's nationals following the deportation of 77 fraud suspects to China this month.
Seventy-seven people, accused of running an online scam targeting people in China, were rounded up and flown from Nadi on the fourth of August.
Chinese nationals staying for less than 30 days don't need visas under a scheme brought in just over two years ago.
But SODELPA's defence spokesperson Mosese Bulitavu said the people of Fiji are in the dark about how the policy's monitored.
"Businesses which have been set up in Fiji, we don't know the real background and the background of people coming in and going out, whether they are involved with hard drugs, whether it's money laundering or whether they are agents of human trafficking. These are bigger and broader issues that will affect Fiji's national security."
Mr Bulitavu said the government should to review the programme.
He said the public needed to know whether the policy had contributed to a rise in crime, an increase in organised crime, a rise in property prices and "other social ills."
"Past Governments have always declined Chinese Government's requests for a visa-free agreement with Fiji not only because of the well known threats of Chinese criminal elements finding their way into our country and using Fiji to expand their operations to other parts of the Pacific Region but principally because any such agreement with China, with over a billion people, would be heavily biased or lopsided against Fiji with a population of just over 800,000 people," said Mr Bulitavu.
The 77 suspects, shown here in pictures released by China's Xinhua news agency, were paraded when they landed in Changchun, in China's northeast. Photo: Xinhua
