INDONESIA: Indonesia and Australia co-chair a day conference in Bali on combating people smuggling

Record ID: 792609

  • Title: INDONESIA: Indonesia and Australia co-chair a day conference in Bali on combating people smuggling
  • Date: 31st March 2011
  • Summary: NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA (MARCH 30, 2011) (REUTERS) **FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGHOUT** FLAGS OF COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCE OUTSIDE VENUE AUSTRALIA FOREIGN MINISTER KEVIN RUDD ARRIVING IN VENUE SECURITY CHECKS AT ENTRANCE SECURITY PERSONNEL CHECKING BELONGINGS INDONESIA FOREIGN MINISTER MARTY NATALEGAWA AND AUSTRALIA FOREIGN MINISTER KEVIN RUDD HEADING TO CON
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia, Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA23SNL7SUGS9FMFMHA1HX20FM5
  • Story Text: Indonesia hosted the Fourth Bali Regional Ministerial Conference, known as the Bali Process, with Australia as co-chair on Wednesday (March 30).
    The Bali Process focuses on addressing the people smuggling and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region.
    The ministerial level meeting was expected to draw a proposal for a regional cooperation framework to address the irregular movement of people and to combat people smuggling.
    In his opening remarks, Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the issues were multi-dimensional and multi-faceted.
    "It is also in line with Indonesia's commitment to ratify the protocol against people smuggling supplementing the United Nations convention against transnational organised crime," Natalegawa said.
    Rudd stressed on the significant increase in numbers of refugees and asylum seekers around the world.
    "Worldwide transnational crime represents a business of $650 billion a year. And within that $650 billion of illegal activity, the third largest crime is people smuggling and human trafficking," Rudd said.
    He also said there will be new transit countries and new destination countries, and the issue is gaining increasing significance worldwide.
    The forum was initiated by Indonesia and Australia in 2002, and involves 41 Asia-Pacific countries as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are origin countries.
    Indonesia plays a major role in addressing the regional issue as it is often used as a transit point for asylum seekers. Asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Sri Lanka are also believed to have used Indonesian people smugglers' services to take them to Australia, Jakarta Post said.
    Australia, meanwhile, usually receives many boats that leave from Indonesia with hundreds of asylum seekers, mainly from war-ravaged countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
    Officials from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IMO) also attended the conference as observers.
    "With all the participating countries in the Bali process, we will organise further cooperation to overcome and work on the problems and threats together," Natalegawa said in joint news conference.
    In 2010, Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Australia and met with Rudd, then-prime minister, and agreed to work together to slow the influx of asylum seeks using Indonesian ports as a jumping-off point for destinations like Australia.
    The one-day conference was preceded by a meeting of senior officials on Tuesday (March 29).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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