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.