RI, Australia Encourage Estblishment of Human Trafficking Working GroupP

Nusa Dua, Bali (Antara) - Indonesia Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa and his Australian counterpart Bob Carr have encouraged the establishment of human trafficking working group. "Indonesia particularly encourages the establishment of the working group that opens for all members of Bali Process who want to be involved in helping human trafficking victims," said Marty Natalegawa during the opening ceremony of Bali Regional Ministerial Conference (BRMC) V known as Bali Process, here on Tuesday. He mentioned three important points to counter the human trafficking, namely prevention, early detection and protection. "We can not depend only on the preventive measure to solve the human trafficking problem, hence the government should be able to mobilize the community to help carry out early detection of possbile human trafficking or smuggling," he said. Meanwhile, Minister Carr said the Bali Process forum is possible to play a significant role in facilitating the cooperation and information exchanges among the origin countries, transit countries, and destination countries in order to thoroughly tackle this international crime called human trafficking. "Human trafficking is a complex problem that sometimes is invisible. It is predicted that 700,000 people are trafficked annually in Asia alone," he said. Carr also emphasized the importance of increasing the capacity and capability of law enforcement during the Bali Process forum. Besides, the Bali Process is expected to upgrade its efforts to counter the human trafficking and smuggling cases through related activities. BRMC forum was established in Bali through the BRMC I event in 2002 in order to counter the human trafficking and smuggling crimes. It is the only regional mechanism which involves the origin, transit and destination countries to deal with human trafficking and smuggling crimes. Besides as the host country, Indonesia with Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the envoys of UNHCR and IOM are listed as members of the "Bali Process Steering Group". Those six members of the steering group are also member countries of the "Bali Process Ad Hoc Group" which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, the US, and Vietnam. The Fifth Bali Process meeting is also participated in by 19 observer countries which are Austria, South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Italy, UK, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The forum was also attended by representatives of 11 international organizations related to the human trafficking issue, namely ADB, World Bank, UNDP, ILO, Interpol, ICMPD, IGD, IFRC, CRC, and APC. (*)