Ministers gather in Bali to discuss people-smuggling

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Ministers, officials and observers from 61 countries and multi-national organizations have gathered in Bali for a two-day conference on illegal migrants and related international crimes, including people-smuggling.

The conference starting Wednesday, jointly organized by Indonesia and Australia, aims to find common ground in handling the global problems of people smuggling.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri is scheduled to open the conference which will be attended by 34 ministers from various countries.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra and National Police Chief Gen. Da'I Bachtiar will lead the Indonesian delegation.

The conference will focus on four points: The cause of people smuggling, enhancement of existing regional systems to prevent human trafficking, humane treatment of illegal migrants and the growing trends of international crimes.

Participants in the conference would be grouped into three: the group of countries supplying migrants such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the group of transit countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, and the group of destination countries such as Australia.

"We are not going to point fingers as no government will protect people-smuggling activities and the conference will hopefully be a significant step forward in handling the problems," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The director of international organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marty Natalegawa, said earlier that the issue of illegal migrants was a global issue and should not be handled by one or two countries but by the international community.

"Indonesia has been repeatedly affected by the issue that is why we choose to take the initiative and take the lead in finding comprehensive solutions and improve capacity building in handling the problems," Marty said.

The conference is expected to result in the establishment of a working group that will work for one year to produce some recommendations for the international community to deal with problems of illegal migrants.

"We hope to achieve some applicable recommendations for international institutions," he remarked.