Growing cross-border movements of people throughout the region is fuelling human trafficking and people smuggling, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said today.

“People smugglers and human traffickers continue to thrive,” Carr told the Bali Process ministerial conference on people smuggling, trafficking in persons and other transnational crime in Bali, Indonesia.

Carr said the Asia-Pacific region played host to 9.5 people of concern to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, including refugees, internally displaced people and people without states.

About 700,000 people are trafficked annually in Asia and the International Labour Organisation estimates more than 20 million people globally are victims of forced labour, Carr said.

“According to the UNCHR, 2012 saw unprecedented migratory movements on all maritime routes in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.

“Sadly where there are vulnerable people, there are predators,” he said. “People smugglers and human traffickers prey on their victims for their own financial gains.” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the Bali Process had proved successful in strengthening regional cooperation 11 years after it was initiated, but called for stronger law enforcement against people smuggling and human trafficking.

“We must be relentless in our common endeavour,” he said. “A massive deterrence message must be projected with effective prosecution of human trafficker and people smugglers to bring them to justice.” Indonesia has for years been a transit point for people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East, South and Central Asia who seek to settle in Australia.

Hundreds of migrants have died in sea accidents in the past decade while en route to Australia by boat.

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