Photo: Supplied
A Fiji lawyer, who is from Rabi Island, says an announcement by the administrator that visitors to the island need to inform the police of their presence is nothing new.
Jacob Lanyon said the administrator, Iakoba Karutake, is sitting in place of the Council of Leaders and this requirement that visitors inform the authorities is a longstanding one.
However, the Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network claims their human rights are being violated by the policy announcement and wants the Fiji government to investigate.
The network's spokesperson Rae Bainteiti said the Karutake has acted without consulting the people.
Lanyon said there is nothing unusual in Karutake's action and he is surprised that some Rabi islanders not know that.
"All visitors to Rabi must report first to the local police," Lanyon said.
"Basically what [Baintieti] is doing he is just publicising age old policies that the previous Rabi Council of Leaders have always held as effective on the island," he said.
"This is nothing new.
"I am really surprised that this is news to some Banabans when in fact this has been the policy all these years."
Rabi was selected, in the 1940s, as the new home for the people of the Kiribati Island of Banaba after phosphate mining there by Britain, Australia and New Zealand left it devastated.
