The Consumer Council of Fiji is urging university students exploited by local landlords into paying exorbitant rents for poor quality accommodation to come forward and lodge complaints.

The council chief executive officer Premila Kumar acknowledged that students were being exploited for “a very long time” but said they could do little unless official complaints were lodged.

Ms Kumar was commenting on a Fiji Sun investigation that exposed the poor quality accommodation provided to University of the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands students in exchange for high rents.

“Students are desperate because they come from their home country and they do not wish to live very far away from university,” Ms Kumar said.

“For that reason, they have been compromising and staying in that condition which is not acceptable.”

She said recent awareness programmes have targeted students as a vulnerable group because landlords tend to intimidate and talk down to them.

As many as eight students were found squeezed into single room flats in Suva, paying $250 to $300 per person in rent per month.

Students in another house said at least 70 people were forced to sleep on bunk beds to fit into the small spaces. Many had to sleep outside because of the unbearable heat.

“Many students are sharing one room meaning (they are) sharing toilet facilities and so on. It is a question of public health,” Ms Kumar said.

Public support started flooding in on social media when the news first broke. Many former students used the space to give harrowing personal accounts.

The Fiji Competition and Consumer Competition’s (FCCC) chief executive officer, Joel Abraham, said they would investigate the grievances and come down hard on landlords once more information came through.

Citing the FCCC Act 2010, which is designed to promote fair trading and protect consumers, he said many aspects of what the landlords were doing was illegal, including the increase of rent every year.

Meanwhile, the Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Fiji John Oti referred questions about what was being done to address the issue to “relevant authorities” in Honiara.

The authorities have not replied to the query. Edited by Jyoti Pratibha

Feedback:  sheldon.chanel@fijisun.com.fj