AUSTRALIA is preparing to dispatch police across Asia to fight people smugglers and expand intelligence and security ties with Indonesia under a landmark deal that could be unveiled within weeks.
Under the deal with Jakarta - which will build on the Lombok Treaty and the Bali Process - the Government is expected to provide extra funding for detention centres, deploy additional police and customs officials and help to train security officials.
The Government is also planning to send extra police and diplomats to Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Malaysia.
But the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said yesterday the so-called Indonesia solution had begun in ''about 2002'' under the former prime minister John Howard, who provided millions of dollars to Jakarta to assist with processing refugees and preventing illegal migration.
''Our engagement with Indonesia on these matters is longstanding and that funding of these measures has been going for many years under successive governments,'' Senator Evans said.
''We have also helped fund some staff and training requirements to make the [detention] centre that was funded under the Howard government operational, to try and improve the skills of those in charge of the centre and to support their staffing needs.''
Since the latest influx of boats, the Government has dispatched senior ministers for overseas meetings with counterparts from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
The meetings have focused on plans to expand Australia's deployment of intelligence personnel, customs officials and diplomats to countries such as Sri Lanka and Indonesia, which are departure and transit points for hundreds of thousands of potential asylum seekers.
The Government is also understood to have begun training and dispatching spies from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service to gather information on illegal immigration and to assist with infiltration of people-smuggling networks.
The Australian Federal Police is set to expand its presence in the region and its ties with regional police forces and intelligence agencies, particularly in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. This will include providing equipment to the Indonesian National Police and deploying anti-people-smuggling officers across Asia.
In its annual report released yesterday, the federal police said people smugglers were working in multinational networks and prevention efforts must involve cross-country co-operation.
with Brendan Nicholson