A church leader in Solomon Islands says efforts have to be made to encourage young people attracted to the bright lights of Honiara to return to their home villages.
The Director of the National Ecumenical Youth Programme of the Solomon Islands Christian Association, Reverend Gideon Tuke, says several hundred young people arrive in the capital each week.
He says they struggle to find work, or feed themselves properly, and are the cause of a soaring petty crime problem in the city.
Reverend Tuke would like to see the young people return to their villages and cultivate the land.
"but I think it is the bright lights that is in Honiara that are attracting allot of young people and people have now changed their diet, there looking more onto milk and bread and cup of tea and the normal potatoes and tapioca, kasava and so forth"
