Secretary General Of ASEAN: Regional Efforts Are Needed To Handle Human Trafficking

ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Houron answered media questions after a briefing on the results of the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Monday (15/5/2023). (ANTARA/Yashinta Difa)

JAKARTA - Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Kao Kim Hourn emphasized the need for regional efforts to deal with cases of human trafficking, which is currently rife in Southeast Asia as a result of technological abuse.

Realizing the importance of joint efforts to address the issue, ASEAN leaders released a Declaration on the Eradication of Human Trafficking due to Technology Abuse at the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo last week.

"Of course the attention of the leaders (ASEAN) is to protect their citizens from being used in criminal acts due to misuse of technology," said Kao as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 15.

Given that no single country can solve this problem itself, said Kao, a regional approach is very much needed, especially through cooperation among law enforcement agencies from each ASEAN member country.

"I think this method is quite decisive, about how we really address this problem as a cross-border crime... and the leaders (ASEAN) also agree that there is an urgent need to increase cooperation in overcoming this issue effectively," said Kao.

The trend of human trafficking cases due to the misuse of technology was reported by almost all ASEAN countries, although the focus of events occurred in several countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, and Vietnam.

For this reason, the ASEAN Declaration on the Eradication of Human Trafficking due to Technology Abuse is considered important, especially since transnational crime is now growing in the era of the rise of technology and social media.

In the declaration, ASEAN leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation and coordination in eradicating human trafficking by increasing the capacity of law enforcement and related institutions of each member state to investigate and collect data and evidence.

In addition, they agreed to increase the legal capacity to identify victims, detect, and try crimes, conduct joint coordinated exercises and operations, as well as joint investigations related to criminal acts of trafficking in persons and other transnational crimes.

"The implementation will be carried out by officials who technically handle it, namely the police, immigration, cyber crime, and others. All of this will move more coordinated because there has been a fatwa," said Spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Teuku Faizasyah to ANTARA, last week.

President Joko Widodo previously emphasized that the eradication of human trafficking must be followed up and he invited ASEAN countries to take firm action against their main actors.