SENIOR A'LIAN OFFICIAL TO DISCUSS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ISSUE IN JAKARTA

Jakarta, Jan 20 (ANTARA) - A senior Australian government official is to meet with Indonesian authorities to discuss common policies to deal with the illegal immigrants issue, Australia's top diplomat said here Thursday.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer made the statement when commenting on the rising number of illegal immigrants using Indonesia as a transit point to reach Australian shores to seek asylum over the last two years.

"Australia has forwarded some points regarding the illegal immigrant issue. A senior government official will visit Indonesia any time soon to discuss common policies to deal with the problem," he said without mentioning the date of the Australian official's visit.

Farmer said Indonesia and Australia had been working together on the illegal immigrant issue for a long time. Officials from both governments had co-chaired the Bali Process conference in 2002 which brought together representatives of over 50 countries and organizations to work on practical measures to help combat people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

He added several bilateral and multilateral meetings concerning the illegal immigrant issue had been conducted after the Bali Process meeting. In fact, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had stated their commitment to work together to fight people smuggling.

"So far, police and immigration officers from Indonesia and Australia have been cooperating well in tackling this problem. However, both parties need to agree on policies regarding the asylum seekers' fate," Farmer said.

In the May-December 2008 period, the number of illegal immigrants who used Indonesia as a transit point to travel illegally to Australia ran into the hundreds. However, the number of illegal immigrants caught in different parts of Indonesia had risen to around 600 in 2009.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, meaning asylum seekers stranded in the country are processed by the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration and forced to wait - most of them for many years - to be resettled in third countries.

The Australian government had so far been receiving at least 13,500 refugees per year. Over 30 boats had arrived in Australian waters this year and the Christmas Island detention center was now almost full.

The same condition is to be found in Indonesian immigration detention centers in several provinces. They are packed with asylum seekers from such countries as Afghanistan. They include women and children. All of them were on their way to Australia but eventually ended up in Indonesian jails.