Marty, Rudd to jointly open Bali Process IV

Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali | Tue, 03/29/2011

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd are scheduled to open the Fourth Bali Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes, in Bali on Wednesday, an official statement says.

At list 18 ministers and officials from 41 participating countries from the Asia-Pacific region are set to attend the conference, commonly known as the Bali Process, says an official statement issued by the Foreign Ministry and received by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Marty would also host the welcome dinner for all conference delegates, on Tuesday evening at a hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, where the conference will be held, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Participants are expected to see representatives from Timor Leste, the latest country to join the conference since it was initiated by the governments of Indonesia and Australia in 2002.

Officials from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and The International Organization for Migration (IMO) will also attend the conference, as observers.

The two organizations, along with Indonesia, Australia, Thailand and New Zealand, have been appointed as members of the conference steering group.

A senior officials meeting was held on Tuesday as a preliminary discussion prior to the conference but it was off limits to the media.

“This meeting will be the first Bali Process Ministerial conference to consider the proposal for a regional cooperation framework to address the irregular movement of people and to combat people smuggling,” a statement from the Australian Foreign Affairs Ministry says.

Asia Pacific countries have agreed to use the conference to seek solutions to the long-standing people smuggling issues that have affected many nations in the region.

Indonesia has been considered a vital player in the issue since the country has been used as a transit point for illegal immigrants. Middle East and Sri Lanka people who have also been believed to have used Indonesian people smugglers’ services to ship them to Australia where they seek refugee status and asylum.

Those who failed to proceed to the Australian mainland, stayed here and married Indonesian women, National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said.

“Many of them joined terrorist groups and became drugs couriers to make a living.”