AUSTRALIA APPOINTS FULL-TIME AMBASSADOR ON PEOPLE SMUGGLING

MELBOURNE, June 8 (Bernama) -- A full-time ambassador to oversee issues
relating to people-smuggling has been appointed, the Australian government
announced today.

Peter Woolcott had been appointed as part of a government commitment to
combat people-smuggling, human trafficking and related transnational crimes,
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement.

The position held by Michael Potts since January 2007 had been boosted from
part-time to a full-time, Smith said.

"The government decided in this year's budget to establish the ambassador
for people-smuggling issues as a dedicated full-time position," Smith said.

"This was done in recognition of the significant challenges that Australia
is facing as a result of difficult conditions in source locations such as
Afghanistan, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and Sri Lanka."

Woolcott will work with countries in the region including Malaysia to
address regional people-smuggling problems.

He will also work closely with other governments, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration.

Woolcott is a senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officer and has
held the position as the first assistant secretary of the Southeast Asia
division since 2007 and served as the Australian ambassador to Rome for three
years before that.
-- BERNAMA