Australia seeks regional support to stop human trafficking

Nov 2, 2010, 11:02 GMT

Jakarta - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday sought the support of Asian neighbours for her country's plan for a regional refugee processing centre.

Australia has proposed setting up an asylum seekers' centre in East Timor but the tiny state has not agreed to the plan.

Indonesia has insisted that any regional centre should be part of a regional co-operation framework.

'Australia will be working with Indonesia and other countries in the region ... to work through a protection framework and processing arrangement which will undercut the business model of people-smugglers,' Gillard told reporters after talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta.

Gillard said such an arrangement would 'take out of the hands of the people-smugglers the product that they sell.'

Undocumented migrants mostly from the Middle East, South and Central Asia seeking better lives in Australia have for years used Indonesia as a transit country.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia and Australia had agreed to increase cooperation in areas including law enforcement to deal with transnational crime, including terrorism.

Bilateral trade between the two countries grew 22 per cent to 4.4 billion US dollars in the first half of 2010, Yudhoyono said.

'In the interest of both countries, we agreed to consider the establishment of a comprehensive economic partnership so that this trade figures could improve further,' the president said.

Read more about Australia

Read more about Indonesia Diplomacy