Yasawa school leaders have raised fresh concerns that police posted to the outer islands have not responded to school reports for years because they lack fuel, with one head teacher saying officers based at Nacula Police Post have not attended to incidents since 2021. The allegation was made by Bukama Village school head teacher Rohit Singh at the Lautoka, Nadi and Yasawa Heads of Schools Symposium yesterday, prompting an on-the-record response from the Western Division juvenile officer.
Singh told the symposium that a 2021 case involving a girl assaulted by a family member was never followed up in the islands because officers refused to attend, asking school staff to bring the victim to the mainland due to “no fuel.” He said the same pattern continued over subsequent years, including an incident last year when a parent came to the school and harassed a student — again, Singh said, police did not come because of fuel shortages. “In the mainland, people are worried about reporting to the police, but we in the islands are worried about police showing up,” he said, adding: “I just wonder where the fuel goes.”
The complaints underline the practical challenges of policing remote communities in the Yasawa group, where small island schools rely on local police posts for immediate protection and to initiate investigations. Without reliable transport or fuel, school leaders say they face a choice between leaving alleged victims in place or arranging costly and time‑consuming travel to Nadi or Lautoka to lodge reports — a barrier officials say can deter reporting and delay child protection responses.
In response to the speakers, Sergeant Asenaca Taufa — Western Division’s juvenile officer based at the Western Police Force headquarters — acknowledged the concerns and offered a new point of contact for outer-island schools. Taufa told teachers she would be the contact person for future reports from the Yasawas and urged school heads to save her official mobile number for urgent cases. “I think I am the contact person from today onwards,” she said, adding that facilitating fuel requests to travel to the Yasawas “should not be a problem” and that officers can “always wait for the next tank of fuel” if necessary.
The exchange represents a concrete operational step: centralising reports through a Western Division contact could speed up logistics and make it easier to prioritise fuel allocations for island patrols. However, Singh’s account raises questions about persistent resourcing shortfalls at the Nacula post and whether isolated promises will address systemic gaps. School leaders at the symposium pressed for clarity on whether island police posts are now regularly equipped with fuel so they know when to report incidents without putting children at further risk.
The development comes as schools and child welfare advocates across Fiji continue to press for stronger safeguards in education settings, including clearer reporting lines and timely police responses. For now, school heads in the Yasawas have been given a direct number and a pledge of support from the Western Division; the immediate test will be whether that commitment results in faster on‑island responses and follow-up investigations for the cases teachers have been raising since 2021.
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