“I welcome the strong co-operation we have with Indonesia on people
smuggling, including Indonesia’s law enforcement efforts against people
smuggling syndicates,” Miss Gillard told reporters on Tuesday.
President Yudhoyono said he and Miss Gillard had discussed the importance of
the Bali Process, an Asia-Pacific body against people smuggling and human
trafficking.
“Indonesia is also a victim of acts of illegal people smuggling,”
he said. “We hope that we can prevent as far as possible acts of people
smuggling in our region.”
Australia is a common destination for boats carrying asylum seekers from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and other poor or war-ravaged countries. Many
asylum seekers travel first to Indonesia and then try to complete the
journey to Australia aboard rickety, overcrowded fishing boats. The boats
generally head for Christmas Island, which is much closer to Indonesia than
to the Australian mainland.
Both the ruling centre-left Labor Party and the conservative opposition
believe sending boat arrivals to a third country to have their refugee
claims assessed will help curb smuggling attempts. But they disagree on
where to send the asylum seekers. Last week, a bill that would have allowed
Australia to deport asylum seekers to another country was rejected in the
Senate, after scraping through the House of Representatives.
Source: agencies
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