Thailand office opens as part of an anti-people smuggling initiative

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Created on Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:38

Written by Editorial staff

Chris Bowen, the minister for immigration and citizenship, has applauded the introduction of a regional support office in Bangkok. The Thailand office has been officially opened as part of a regional framework known as the Bali Process Regional Cooperation Framework to deal with the ever growing problem of people smuggling who try to usurp normal processes for immigration, by ignoring immigration visas and travelling by illegal means.

The Bali Process is a system of reforms which are co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia, designed to ensure that people smuggling is wiped out in the Asia Pacific region. The list of reforms include; better and more effective sharing of intelligence, smoother cooperation between law enforcement agencies, protection of victims of trafficking (especially women and children) and assisting other countries in developing their own practises of dealing with illegal boat arrivals and people smugglers.

This new Bangkok office will work in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migrations as well as with nations including Australia, Indonesia and Thailand among others.

Bowen said that a more comprehensive, global initiative to combat people smugglers is needed.

"The Australian government recognises that we need a truly regional approach to irregular migration, and the establishment of the Regional Support Office (RSO) is an important practical measure in strengthening cooperation to address this complex issue.

“In line with the expert panel’s recommendations, the government has recently taken the significant steps of immediately increasing the humanitarian intake to 20,000 places in 2012-13 and allocated $10 million for regional capacity building projects with a special emphasis on UNHCR," Mr Bowen said.

In the tenth year of the Bali process, the government has committed $5.2 million over four more years to establish the operation at the new Bangkok office and $2.7 million for projects to be established and ran through the office.

The federal government is currently implementing systems to allow for 20,000 refugee spaces in Australia for the 2012-13

Shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison has said that the government, in reopening the Nauru detention centre, they must also reformat its use of the Bali Process and focus on deterrence and border security.