Nusa Dua, The Indonesia Post – The Indonesian government proposed that fishing theft is a form of transnational organized crime at the 61st Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali.
“I am confident that AALCO can maintain its constructive role in representing the interests of Asian-African countries to overcome global challenges,” said Director General of General Legal Administration of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) Cahyo R. Muzhar on the sidelines of the 61st AALCO meeting in Nusa Dua, Badung Regency, Bali, Tuesday.
The Chair of the 61st AALCO Indonesian Delegation added the importance of illegal arrests as a transnational organized crime because they have caused global losses.
Based on data from the United Nations Agency for Food and Agriculture (FAO), it is estimated that losses due to fishing theft reach 23 billion US dollars per year.
Even so, not all countries in the AALCO forum have the same conditions as Indonesia, namely having maritime areas with exclusive economic zones (EEZ).
Apart from that, another challenge is that some of the perpetrators of fishing theft also come from member countries in the AALCO forum or ships with flags from member countries which was formed in 1956.
Even so, Indonesia is looking for common views and perceptions among the AALCO countries and is trying to raise this issue in other world forums, including through the UN.
Apart from fishing theft, Cahyo also revealed that Indonesia is also proposing a new agenda regarding the formation of a forum to bring together experts in efforts to return assets resulting from corruption that were taken abroad.
According to him, the process of returning assets resulting from international crimes that are cross-jurisdictional between countries is complex.
So that the existence of an expert forum can become a forum for strengthening cooperation for Asian-African countries in the form of discussions and sharing experiences.
“As one of the founding countries of AALCO, Indonesia continues to be fully committed to AALCO’s performance and values, and looks forward to better cooperation in the future,” he said. (mhn/bbs)
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