Government of Timor-Leste

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Luís Guterres, took part in the Bali Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transactional Crimes, Asia Pacific Region, that took place in Bali, Indonesia on 1 and 2 April 2013.

In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation expressed the political commitment of the Timorese State in the struggle against trafficking in persons and transactional organised crime. The materialisation of this policy has its foundation on the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Criminal Code and the Draft-Law against Trafficking in Persons. The latter will be developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. In Accordance with the work plan, the draft-law will be submitted to the Council of Ministers in the course of this year.

José Luís Guterres informed that “as regards progress being made by the Immigration Service, a Border Management Information System is being implemented. Despite the fact that Timor-Leste is not a destination country for trafficking in persons, it may be used as a transit country for this illegal activity, notably for Australia and Indonesia. For this reason, the good cooperation existing between the three countries (Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Australia) is very positive in the fight against trafficking in persons.”

On the sidelines of the meeting, José Luís Guterres held talks with his counterparts from Australia and Bangladesh to discuss Timor-Leste’s bilateral relations with these two countries, and also met with the Director-General of the International Organisation for Migrations, William Lacy Swing, to analyse the cooperation between Timor-Leste and this organisation.