Australia lauds people-smuggling decision

The flow of boat-people to Australia has dried up over the past 12 months

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Efforts towards greater regional co-operation on combating people-smuggling seem to be paying off, following a decision by a Thai court to hand over a key suspect to Australia to face charges.

Australia has been seeking to extradite a Pakistani citizen, Hasan Ayoub, whom it believes to be a notorious "snakehead" people-smuggler responsible for sending almost 400 illegal immigrants to Australia by boat.

The man denies he is Ayoub, saying instead that he is a carpet-seller called Naeem Aahamad Chaudry. He is appealing the extradition decision.

If he is unsuccessful, the Pakistani man will face 13 charges in Australia and could be imprisoned for up to 20 years if found guilty.

Australia has been working hard to encourage greater co-operation between law agencies in Southeast Asia in a bid to address the problem of human-trafficking before the asylum-seekers arrive on Australian shores.

During a visit to Australia in May, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agreed the two countries should ramp up co-operation between their law agencies to help combat the drug trade and people-smuggling in the region.

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Australia's Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison said Monday the Australian Federal police enjoyed close cooperation with the law enforcement authorities in Thailand and the decision on Ayoub was welcomed.

"In order to meet the terms of the extradition arrangement with Thailand, Australia was required to provide some evidence sufficient to justify criminal charges being laid against Mr Ayoub for the alleged offences," he said.

"He's been a person of key interest to Australian law-enforcement agencies," Ellison told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio Tuesday.

"This is the culmination of a great deal of hard work between Australia and Thailand law enforcement authorities."

Second suspect

Australia is also seeking to extradite from Thailand a second suspected people smuggler, an Iraqi known as Al Jenabi, on similar charges.

Encouraging greater co-operation between Asian law enforcement agencies was a key outcome of a joint Australian-Indonesian people-smuggling conference held in Bali earlier this year.

Currently, Indonesia -- a key embarking point for asylum-seekers bound for Australia -- does not have any laws which specifically prohibit people-smuggling.

Ellison said Australia would like to see uniform people-smuggling laws throughout the region and a working party appointed by the Bali conference was working towards that end.

Australia, meanwhile, has introduced to parliament its own new, tougher people-smuggling laws to deal with its own citizens involved in the trade.

Ellison said the new penalties "illustrate the seriousness of Australia's approach to people-smuggling and will hopefully encourage other regional countries to adopt similar offences."

Aggravating circumstances

The new laws will make it a crime to: smuggle people from Australia to another country; smuggle from one country to a third country via Australia; be involved in people smuggling between countries even if there is no transit through Australia.

These crimes will attract penalties of up to 10 years in jail, and up to 20 years if the crime involves aggravating circumstances such as people-smuggling for prostitution purposes.

Around 8,000 people were smuggled to Australian shores last year, usually via boat from Southeast Asia.

But a crackdown by the Australian government last year and stricter border-control laws has seen the numbers of asylum-seekers arriving dwindle sharply.