Tomorrow Wednesday, ASEAN Leaders Committed To Eradicating Human Trafficking Practices

Documentation - Flags of participating countries of the 42nd ASEAN Summit (KTT) in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) (ANTARA)

LABUAN BAJO - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Mahfud MD, said ASEAN leaders would declare a joint commitment to eradicating human trafficking. Mahfud conveyed this when chairing the 26th Meeting of the ASEAN Political-Security Community Council (APSC) at komodo Waecicu Beach, Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, Tuesday, in the 42nd ASEAN Summit (KTT) series. "Our leaders tomorrow will adopt the Declaration of the Eradication of Human Trafficking Due to Technology Abuse," he said while giving a speech to the 26th APSC Meeting quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday 9 May. Mahfud believes that the declaration will present a comprehensive approach in overcoming human trafficking practices, ranging from prevention to protection of victims. "It also increases our joint collaboration to ward off technological abuse," he said. The spirit of human trafficking eradication, continued Mahfud, also needs to be supported through efforts to accelerate the ASEAN Extradition Treaty negotiations. The reason is that such agreement is urgently needed and has been negotiated quite long. "The agreement will prevent our area from becoming a haven for criminals, while strengthening the status of ASEAN as a law-based society," Mahfud said. Previously, Mahfud also conveyed an invitation from the Indonesian Government to the ASEAN community to continuously equip the ability to effectively ward off the challenges of various potential cross-state crimes in the region. Mahfud emphasized that cross-border crimes, whether it is in the form of terrorism, narcotics and money laundering, to human trafficking should be a separate concern for ASEAN. "We have no choice but ensuring that ASEAN has sufficient capability to overcome these various challenges effectively," said Mahfud.

Meanwhile, on Monday 8 May, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has stated that Indonesia will carry out discussions on the eradication of human trafficking in the 42nd ASEAN Summit with the emphasis of online fraud or online scams. "This is important and I deliberately propose because the victims are ASEAN people and most of them are Indonesian citizens (Indonesian citizens, ed.) us," said Jokowi.