WIIS-Australia Policy Briefs

This policy brief addresses the issue of human trafficking on the border between Indonesia and Timor Leste. While trafficking activities take place within both countries, their use of Australia’s borders, particularly through air transit, carries important implications for national security. Understanding international trafficking flows into Australia is crucial to predicting patterns and trends, including who the victims are, their countries of origin, the reasons they are trafficked, and how they are trafficked. By gaining this insight, we can anticipate the potential impact on Australia (Putt, 2007). In the absence of adequate data, it is difficult to ascertain patterns in human trafficking and to therefore change or advance counter-trafficking efforts. This brief therefore makes an innovative contribution to policy discussions on human trafficking by encouraging the governments of Indonesia, Timor Leste, and Australia to collaborate on land border routes through several platforms, such as ASEAN-Australia Counter-Trafficking (ASEANACT) and the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime (The Bali Process).