Ministers announce immigration cooperation initiatives
Thursday, 17 January 2008
The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans and the Minister of Law and Human Rights for Indonesia, Mr Andi Mattalatta, held talks in Jakarta earlier today.
Following the meeting, the Ministers jointly announced new initiatives aimed at strengthening immigration cooperation between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia.
The initiatives include English language training for airport officers at the Directorate General of Immigration; the placement of a native English language speaker from Australia at the Ministry for Law and Human Rights training academy; and a program of immigration data analysis and reporting training.
Senator Evans said that Indonesia and Australia would continue to work together and with other countries in the region to strengthen their borders against people smuggling, terrorism and other forms of trans-national crime.
A Working Group meeting to be held in Australia in early 2008 will consider further ways to strengthen immigration cooperation to prevent irregular movement in the region, while facilitating the safe and secure movement of lawful travellers.
'During the talks with Mr Mattalatta, the importance of providing management and care of irregular migrants in Indonesia,' Senator Evans said.
'We discussed the success of these arrangements in protecting people from being drawn into risky people smuggling ventures.'
A joint Ministerial statement is attached.
See: Indonesia-Australia Immigration Partnership (44KB PDF file)
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au
/media/media-releases/2008/ce08007.htm
Last update: 13 August 2008 at 17:14 AEST