JAKARTA: Countries in the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday agreed to boost “more effective law enforcement” to help bring an end to human smuggling, Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr said, adding that Canberra continues to seek to slow the number of asylum seekers arriving on its northern shores. The meeting in Indonesia, home to where many of the so-called “boat people” leave from for Australia, saw some 37 countries agree on a framework to end the smuggling of people. “That means these nations are committed to seeing that there's more effective control at airports and more effective border protection,” Carr told reporters on the resort island of Bali. “To have the nations committed to more effective law enforcement is very important,” he added, at the end of a two-day meeting of the Bali Process, which aims to tackle people smuggling and human trafficking. “I believe it is a wretched trade and that in stamping out, we're safeguarding people from illusory hopes and risk to their lives.” Canberra had clinched a deal in 2011 to send 800 boat people to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 registered refugees as a deterrent to people paying smugglers to make the dangerous maritime voyage to Australia. However that deal was scrapped by the High Court and was also opposed in the Australian parliament, which insists asylum-seekers should only be sent to countries that have signed the UN refugee convention. But with Australia facing a record rise in boat people this year — more than 13,500 since January 1 — and an offshore camp in Nauru becoming overcrowded, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said earlier this year that the plan needed to be revisited. Carr was in Malaysia earlier this month said the government in Kuala Lumpur remained committed to the deal and deserved credit instead of criticism for how they had dealt with asylum-seekers. Carr acknowledged that Malaysia was no closer to signing the UN convention but said: “It's very silly if that's a stumbling block. “As Malaysia sees it, they have two million illegal workers, they have 100,000 refugees, they're dealing with this and they can deal with it without signing the convention," he said. “We were more than happy with the assurances that they gave us when we negotiated the arrangement with them." In the deal, Australia will send boat people to Malaysia for processing while Australia will accept 5,000 genuine refugees now living in Malaysia. BN
