Jayapura, Jubi – The U.S government is threatening to downgrade Fiji to the lowest possible ranking on its global human trafficking index over its failure to clamp down on a powerful doomsday cult purportedly involved in “transnational organized crime,” a State Department official told OCCRP in a statement.
The move would put at risk millions of dollars in development aid to the South Pacific country. The State Department official’s statement to OCCRP said the U.S is cooperating with Fiji, which needs to take “decisive action” to avoid the downgrade.
Fiji would be downgraded to “Tier 3” in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, alongside countries like Cambodia and North Korea. Fiji is currently on the second lowest level, the Tier 2 Watchlist.
The threatened reclassification follows the escape of at least four U.S citizens — including two children — since late last year from the Grace Road Group, a religious sect that hails from South Korea. Over the last decade, the cult has become one of the most powerful conglomerates in Fiji, operating businesses including supermarkets, beauty salons, and restaurants.
“The United States remains deeply concerned about indicators of transnational organized crime and human trafficking associated with the Grace Road Group, as outlined in the TIP report, as well as other suspected trafficking and persons issues in Fiji,” the State Department official said in a statement.
The State Department in late September singled out Grace Road for the first time in its annual TIP report, stating that the group’s 300-odd members in Fiji “experience conditions indicative of human trafficking.” Purported abuses include “being forced to work excessive hours with no rest days, physical violence, passport confiscation, and unpaid wages.”
Fiji Police told OCCRP that between 2024 and 2025 alone, they have forwarded four investigation files to the country’s Office of the Director of Prosecution (ODPP) relating to human trafficking allegations at Grace Road. The files include two investigations into complaints of trafficking in persons made by U.S citizens.
An ODPP media liaison officer also confirmed that they are currently reviewing these four files.
Designating Fiji as a Tier 3 country would potentially cut off all non-humanitarian U.S assistance. It could also lead the U.S to pressure lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to end funding to the country.
“With Fiji at risk of being downgraded to Tier 3 in 2026, a designation that could affect Fiji’s eligibility for certain U.S foreign assistance, we are working with the government of Fiji to take decisive action to address the recommendations outlined in the TIP report,” according to the State Department official’s statement.
Fiji has until the end of March to show improvements or face automatic downgrading. There are indications the government is taking the threat seriously.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told reporters that he has established an “inter-ministerial taskforce” led by his office and involving the ministries of justice, policing, immigration and finance to provide strategic direction and oversight of these national efforts.
He added that joint immigration, customs, and police investigations into a series of cases related to Grace Road are nearing completion.
Fiji Immigration Minister Viliame Naupoto confirmed that representatives of different ministries, and agencies dealing with human trafficking, have held meetings with U.S officials “to discuss the pursuit of some outcomes demanded by the TIP report.”
The U.S contributed just US$6.5 million to Fiji in 2023, or roughly two percent of total foreign aid. But a downgrade over human trafficking would still have a big impact, said Riley Duke, an expert on development aid in the Pacific at Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank.
For example, it might put in jeopardy plans to include Fiji in a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) “compact program,” a U.S aid initiative aimed at reducing poverty and promoting economic growth.
Foreign aid to the Pacific is falling overall, making the proposed MCC compact one of the few opportunities for Fiji to make up the difference.
“And so with financing for development tightening, an area that’s been a case of optimism is getting sort of snuffed out,” Duke said.
U.S pressure on multilateral bodies like the World Bank and Asia Development Bank that give tens of millions of dollars a year to Fiji would be even more significant, he said.
“That would be very material for the country’s development outlook.”
Grace Road did not respond to questions. It has previously denied any wrongdoing.
The U.S move is perhaps the most potent threat yet to Grace Road, which has enjoyed near-untouchability in Fiji since it relocated there from South Korea in 2014 to prepare for what it believes is a coming nuclear Armageddon.
The cult has promoted the belief that believes that Jesus Christ is an “enemy and wicked man” falsely worshipped as humanity’s saviour. Eternal life can only be gained by following their leader, Korean grandmother Ok-joo Shin.
Shin was arrested by South Korean police in 2018 coming off a flight at Incheon International Airport, outside of Seoul, and remains imprisoned on convictions including child abuse, assault, and fraud.
The group has thrived in Fiji despite Shin’s son, Daniel Kim, and other top local leaders also being wanted on Korean arrest warrants. Previous OCCRP reporting has shown how the cult received Fiji government support, including millions of dollars in state-backed loans, during the previous authoritarian government of former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.
The cult endured in Fiji despite pledges by ministers in the current government to take a harder line on its activities.
Kim was declared a “prohibited immigrant” by the Fijian government and detained on immigration offences in 2023, but was reportedly released on bail last November pending a judicial review.
In the meantime, the cult has continued to expand its footprint, recently announcing plans to open a 60-room hotel in the Western division of Fiji.
OCCRP has seen three reports given to police by U.S citizens who were former members of the cult, including a teenage boy, about alleged mistreatment of . The reports contain allegations of abuse, including being forced to work in slave-like conditions from early morning to late at night in cult-owned businesses.
OCCRP could not independently verify the claims, but they match previously reported testimony by other former cult members and the outcome of Shin’s South Korean criminal trial.
The three former members allege regular beatings for infractions such as falling asleep in sermons or failing to follow instructions at work. These also allegedly included rituals of violent public humiliation known as “the threshing floor” aimed at ridding cult members of demonic possession.
“We knew instantly it was a threshing when we would all sit in a huge circle… in a main ‘living room,’” one of the American former cult members wrote in her police statement.
“We would shut the windows, and one-by-one, a Grace Road member would get called to the front of the circle and get major hitting on the head, slapping, kicking, and hair pulling,” she said. “Sometimes, we were encouraged to join in to hit the person because they need to ‘wake up’ from their spiritual death and sleepiness.” (*)
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