Word: lingham
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...they have no opportunity to purchase a house, says Dharam Lingham, the country's former senior bureaucrat in charge of squatters. "It's one of the main social problems facing Fijians today," he says. "These are very poor people who are already in a cycle of poverty. Whole families are suffering." Lingham, who resigned his post six months ago, says the government's response is hopelessly inadequate. "If something is not done, half of Fiji will be living in these settlements in 20 years' time...
...soon to be released research paper, Lingham has found that since 2003 the number of squatters has risen from just over 80,000 to the current 100,000, spread across about 125 settlements. He estimates that in the 30-km corridor between the nation's capital Suva and its satellite town of Nausori, 9,000 new homes are required now to cope with the 2,500 people currently facing eviction from existing settlements...
...Fiji's government pledged $3.5 million to provide housing for the squatters, but Lingham says what's needed is at least $10 million a year for the next ten years. Between 1992 and 2000, the government developed only 1,572 lots to house 7,500 people. According to his research, by 2028 approximately 13,100 leases will have expired, forcing at least 3,500 farming families to seek resettlement. Last month, Fiji's new government, installed in a coup last year by Commodore Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama, announced it had set aside $1 million for Squatter Upgrading and Resettlement...
...locally as "blackbirders" (Solomon Islanders brought to Fiji to work on plantations in the 1930s), argued that more than 40 years ago they were given permission by the chiefs to live on the land. Fiji High Court Justice Roger Coventry ruled the squatters could remain for the time being. Lingham says the decision may prompt thousands of squatters to refuse to move off private and government land. But landowners say they will not retreat. The Bhindi Brothers property company owns dozens of hectares in the Kumars' settlement. While they have tolerated squatters for years, a $20 million development...
...Brian Lingham, a regular before the renovations, said he even took off work to see the bar reopen...