Prostitute watch

Repeka Nasiko
Monday, March 25, 2013

POLICE officers at the Lautoka Police Station have begun patrolling the streets of the Sugar City to rid it of prostitution.

Speaking to this newspaper, Divisional Police Commander West Senior Superintendent of Police Jope Ralulu said addressing prostitution in Lautoka was a continuous comprehensive exercise for the force.

"As far as prostitution is concerned, we are doing our best to address this issue and try to find ways to assist them in finding other means of earning an income and to find employment.

"We are also talking with government stakeholders in seeking advice to find ways that we can address people who are engaged in prostitution because the overall thinking is that they are people who are from very poor backgrounds so we need to look for other alternatives or ways that we can help them," he said.

"What we are also seeing is that when we move in to remove people who are involved in prostitution from Lautoka, we find the same people have moved to other towns like Nadi and Ba, so that is another thing that we are looking at.

"In terms of getting people to assist us, we are looking at NGOs and religious leaders to assist us.

"They are best equipped in giving advice to these people and maybe even provide alternative sources of income for them," he added.

Meanwhile, SSP Ralulu commended grog drinkers at the Lautoka Municipal Market for adhering to their advice.

"We thank those members that usually drink grog at the market for their co-operation and for adhering to our advisories. They work according to our time limits and we acknowledge their efforts in that."