People-smuggling 'requires collective response'

People-smuggling 'requires collective response'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post,
Nusa Dua, Bali

A two-day international conference on illegal migrants and
related transnational crimes ended here on Thursday with all
participating countries recognizing people-smuggling as an
international issue that requires a collective response.

Participating countries also agreed to explore cooperative
measures to strengthen technical capacity among countries in the
region to enable them to develop more effective legal structures
and policy measures to put an end to the practice.

"The (conference's) most important achievement is that
countries in the Asia-Pacific region agreed that people-smuggling
and related transnational crimes are international issues that
require a collective response," Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan
Wirayuda said in his closing remarks.

Efforts to combat people-smuggling have primarily been focused
on preventing boat people, mostly from Middle Eastern and South
Asian nations, from entering Australia.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, in a veiled manner, appeared
to criticize Australia on Wednesday for taking ineffective
unilateral actions.

Last October, over 350 illegal migrants, mostly Iraqis,
perished in the Java Sea when their ill-equipped boat sank on its
way to Australia.

Earlier in August, Australia refused to accept close to 500
Australia-bound asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian ship from a
sinking Indonesian boat. The refugee stand-off created tensions
between Australia and Indonesia, especially after Canberra
repeatedly accused the Indonesian government of not doing enough
to combat smuggling.

The police arrested in November a man called Abu Quassey, whom
Australia accused of organizing the departure of illegal migrants
to Australia.

The conference -- co-hosted by Indonesia and Australia --
brought together representatives from 37 nations particularly in
Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific and a number of
international organizations including the International
Organization of Migration, the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the
International Labor Organization.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer stressed
in his closing statements that the participating countries had
expressed a strong commitment to fight human trafficking and
handle the problem in cooperation with one another.

"This conference, the first of its kind, has shown strong
international will to stop people-smuggling ... Working together
will make a significant difference in combating this activity,"
Downer said.

The conference also agreed on the establishment of two ad hoc
working groups which will analyze specific issues and identify
common problems. Thailand and New Zealand volunteered to chair
the two working groups.

One working group will examine how proposals to combat people-
smuggling can be integrated into existing international
agreements and regional structures, such as the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations. The other will focus on practical
measures such as enhancing police and intelligence coordination,
and improving visa management and technical systems for detecting
forged travel documents. The panel will also help draft and
integrate legislation against people-smuggling throughout the
region.

Their recommendations will be discussed at a follow-up
conference in Australia next year. Australia also appointed
Ambassador John Buckley, the incumbent Australian Ambassador to
the Philippines, as the ambassador on people-smuggling.

The conference also confirmed that the root causes of people-
smuggling and human trafficking were numerous and multi-
dimensional involving economic, social and political aspects such
as poverty, economic disparities, labor market opportunities and
conflict.

"The international community has been strongly urged to assist
source countries to address the root causes of the illegal
movement of people by providing emergency aid, development
assistance, direct support programs for displaced persons and to
address the plight of refugees," the conference's final statement
read.