The business community in the Asia-Pacific region should join the fight against people smuggling, human trafficking and transnational crimes, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said, reports bdnews24.com
He made the call while addressing the 'Bali Process Government and Business Forum' in Australia's Perth on Friday.
He was invited to the forum by the foreign minister of Australia and Indonesia, Julie Bishop and Retno Marsudi, who are its co-chairs.
The Bali Process Business Forum, formally launched on Friday, attempts to establish a business-government partnership against people smuggling, transnational crimes as well as modern slavery across the region.
The forum was attended by 23 ministers from the Asia-Pacific region, 45 top government officials and 35 business leaders of the member states of Bali Process and UN agencies such as the UNODC, IOM and UNHCR.
Established in 2002, the 'Bali Process on People Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes' is a voluntary forum for regional awareness and cooperation.
Some 4.5 billion people of the world’s population are covered under the Bali process.
In his statement, Foreign Minister Ali reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment and spoke of its measures to prevent and combat human trafficking and transnational crimes.
He also underscored the need for cooperation between governments and the private sector to find out the root causes of human trafficking and to manage the demand-supply mechanism of labour.
He also signed the voluntary pledges laid down by the co-chairs along with other participating member states.
Bangladesh, an active member of the Bali Process, has been working to build capacity of law enforcement agencies in addressing the issue of human trafficking, the foreign ministry said.
Earlier, the foreign minister attended the “New Colombo Plan Alumni Ambassadors Breakfast Meeting”, hosted by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Several hundred Australian students receive government grants and scholarship to study in Asia-Pacific nations under the initiative by Minister Bishop.
Next year, 29 Australian students are expected to travel to Bangladesh for study purposes.
It would be the largest group of Australian students to ever come to Bangladesh under the New Colombo Plan which began in 2014.
