FIJI faces an uncomfortable reckoning as the United States threatens to cut millions of dollars in development aid over allegations of human trafficking tied to a South Korean sect.
Grace Road is a prominent investor with supermarkets, restaurants, and service stations but arrived in Fiji initially to set up a commune on which its members hope to escape the end of the world.
Its leader, Shin Ok-ju and three other members of the Grace Road Church were arrested at Seoul’s international airport in 2018 on charges of human trafficking in Fiji and the US.
Shin was later convicted of assault, child abuse, and fraud.
Since its arrival in Fiji in 2014, Grace Road Group has woven itself into the fabric of the nation’s economy. Its investments span supermarkets, restaurants, beauty salons, and ambitious agricultural projects.
With hundreds of jobs created and new businesses injected into local supply chains, many Fijians see the group as a welcome source of economic energy and innovation.
But behind the economic success story lie persistent reports of abuse.
The US State Department’s latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report highlights mounting evidence that some 300 Grace Road members in Fiji have faced forced labour, physical violence, confiscation of passports, and unpaid wages, classic red flags for human trafficking.
The report notes that members have been compelled to work gruelling hours, sometimes without rest days.
Further testimonies from former members, including US citizens who fled the group, allege beatings, ritual humiliation, and near-slavery working conditions in Grace Road’s Fijian businesses.
Some of these claims are now the subject of official police files and investigations by Fijian authorities.
Between 2024 and 2025, the Fiji Police forwarded four human trafficking investigation files involving Grace Road to the country’s Office of the Director of Prosecution (ODPP). Two of those cases involve US citizens.
Sources within the ODPP confirmed that the files were being reviewed.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has responded to US concerns by forming an inter-ministerial taskforce and promising thorough investigations. At the same time, Immigration Minister Viliame Naupoto confirmed that Fijian agencies have met US officials to discuss the cases.
Despite these moves, Grace Road continues to expand, recently announcing plans for a new hotel in Fiji’s Western Division.
Critics claim the group’s political connections, reportedly cultivated during the tenure of former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, have long protected it from serious scrutiny.
Naupoto- who will lead the inter-ministerial taskforce – was a key member of Bainimarama’s government.
If the US finds that Fiji is involved with, influenced by, helping or protecting Grace Road, this could lead to Tier 3 status, $USD6.5 million in annual aid, and trigger pressure on institutions like the World Bank and the IMF to suspend funding.
Fiji is also in the running for a coveted Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) development grant—a much-needed opportunity amid tightening Pacific aid flows.
“With financing for development tightening, an area that’s been a case of optimism is getting sort of snuffed out,” said Riley Duke, an aid expert at Australia’s Lowy Institute.
“US pressure on multilateral donors like the World Bank and Asia Development Bank would be even more material for the country’s development outlook.”
The US Department of State has a four-tier measurement system for countries based on their compliance with the minimum standards outlined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
Fiji is currently a Tier 2 nation. Tier 3 ranking is given to a country which does not meets the TVPA’s minimum standards nor demonstrates significant efforts toward compliance – like North Korea, Cambodia and Eritrea.
That would mean an end to all non-humanitarian aid.
In 2024, Fiji received close to $USD16million in US aid in the areas of governance, education, health, and the military.
As the government races to meet a March deadline for action, it stands at a crossroads: Will it prioritise the undeniable economic benefits Grace Road brings, or act decisively in defence of human rights and the rule of law?
For now, Fiji’s experiment with Grace Road stands as a potent lesson in the complicated trade-offs that come with foreign investment.
The group has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Original material: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)