Australia on Thursday launched a new 80 million Australian dollars (USD 55 million) program to help Southeast Asian nations combat human trafficking.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the 10-year program was an extension of Canberra's assistance to the region to tackle the menace in the last 15 years.
She said Australia has helped train more than 13,000 judicial officials who bolstered their legal systems to fight human trafficking and ensure better protection for victims in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Payne said at the launch of the program with her ASEAN counterparts that the bloc has made progress with the 2015 launch of its own action plan to combat trafficking, especially in women and children, but deeper cooperation was required as the scale of the challenge remained "immense."
"Our partnership with ASEAN on human trafficking continues to grow, promoting a fairer and more just region."