Ministers gather in Bali to discuss people-smuggling

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.