The Fourth Bali Process Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and
Related Transnational Crime in Bali, Indonesia on 29-30 March 2011. Ministers acknowledged that 2012 marks the ten-year commemoration of the First Bali Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime held in Bali on 26-28 February 2002. In this context, Ministers highlighted the important achievements reached through cooperation by States within the context of Bali Process mechanisms and reaffirmed their strong and ongoing commitment to combating people smuggling and trafficking in persons.
Ministers recalled the decision at the Third Bali Regional Ministerial Conference to re-task the
Ad Hoc Group mechanism to develop regional responses to current challenges. Ministers commended the valuable and constructive work of the Ad Hoc Group, including the outcomes of the workshop on Protection, Resettlement and Repatriation held in Bali in June 2010 and the workshop on Regional Cooperation on Refugees and Irregular Movements held in Manila in November 2010.
Ministers underlined the collective responsibility of source, transit and destination countries in responding to complex migratory movements, noting that a cooperative framework approach would offer an opportunity to accommodate the interests of all States involved, consistent with applicable international standards.
Ministers agreed that an inclusive but non-binding regional cooperation framework would provide a more effective way for interested parties to cooperate to reduce irregular movement through the region.
Ministers agreed to a regional cooperation framework underpinned by the following core principles:
i. Irregular movement facilitated by people smuggling syndicates should be eliminated and States should promote and support opportunities for orderly migration.
ii. Where appropriate and possible, asylum seekers should have access to consistent assessment processes, whether through a set of harmonised arrangements or through the possible establishment of regional assessment arrangements, which might include a centre or centres, taking into account any existing sub-regional arrangements.
iii. Persons found to be refugees under those assessment processes should be provided with a durable solution, including voluntary repatriation, resettlement within and outside the region and, where appropriate, possible “in country” solutions.
iv. Persons found not to be in need of protection should be returned, preferably on a voluntary basis, to their countries of origin, in safety and dignity. Returns should be sustainable and States should look to maximise opportunities for greater cooperation.
v. People smuggling enterprises should be targeted through border security arrangements, law enforcement activities and disincentives for human trafficking and smuggling.