Jakarta. ASEAN chair Indonesia on Tuesday said that it did not want the Southeast Asian region to be a safe haven for criminals.

ASEAN is currently working on a pact on extradition, namely the formal process of a country surrendering an individual accused or convicted of crimes for trial or sentence in the requesting country. This extradition treaty is expected to help ASEAN combat transnational crimes, including human trafficking that are now growing rampant in the region. And according to Indonesia, it is about time for the negotiations on this extradition treaty to pick up pace.

“We need to make progress in the ASEAN extradition treaty negotiations. Such a treaty has been long overdue,” Chief Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said at the 26th ASEAN Political Security Community Council meeting in Labuan Bajo on Tuesday.

“It would prevent our region from becoming a haven for criminals, and solidify ASEAN as a rules-based community,” Mahfud said.

In March, ASEAN’s senior law officials held their fourth working group meeting on the extradition treaty in Bali. 

According to the Human Rights Ministry, ASEAN managed to wrap up the first reading of the draft treaty in this meeting. The members came to a consensus on the provisions related to the basis of extradition and what crimes qualify for extradition, to name a few. The Bali meeting also finished the pact’s final clauses of articles 14-26 on the handover arrangements, and simplified extradition procedures, among others.

In 1976, the bloc’s five founding members —Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand— adopted the Declaration of the ASEAN Concord. The document calls for a study on how to develop judicial cooperation, including the possibility of an ASEAN extradition treaty.