PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and Australia stated on Monday their commitment to work together on the issues of people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crimes, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
He said both countries believed that the Bali Process on human trafficking would allow the respective countries in the region, in particular, to deal with this issue.
"It is complicated, but working together as one in dealing with a very common problem of trans-national crime, of course, it is important for us," he said at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, here.
The Bali Process is an initiative which brings participants together to work on practical measures to help combat smuggling and trafficking in persons in the Asia Pacific region.
Gillard, Australia's first woman prime minister, is on two-day visit to Malaysia, as part of her maiden tour of the region since becoming prime minister in June.
Muhyiddin said both countries agreed on the need to further enhance cooperation in combating people smuggling and trafficking in persons.
He said there had been a number of engagements by the working groups which had been formed between the two countries to tackle the issue.
"And we want to see that they pursue (the matter), for today, they are very complex (issues). Of course, (these are) serious issues at the regional and international levels as well," he said.
Gillard said Malaysia had been a key contributor in the region to the disruption of people-smuggling activities.
"We very much welcome Malaysia's recent introduction of laws to crimininalise people-smuggling.
"I have also had the opportunity today to talk through Australia's proposal for a regional protection framework and a regional processing centre, and we have agreed to further dialogue in this area, including through the Bali Process," she said.
Commenting on the commitment of Malaysia towards the Australia-proposed regional processing centre, Muhyiddin said Malaysia viewed it as a very important matter and needed more information on it.
"Of course, a lot more needs to be done and, I did mention this earlier, that we need to see how this mechanism can work and whether the respective parties will need to be contributing in any way to the cost of the centre.
"There are a few outstanding matters that need to be addressed before Malaysia takes its official position on this," he said.
On Gillard's visit to Malaysia, he said it would place the secure relationship between the two countries at an even higher level. - Bernama
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.