Australia, ASEAN, and Forced Migration in Asia

Abstract

The Asian region is host to the largest number of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people in the world, yet on the whole, the region is ill-equipped to respond effectively to this problem. One of the main difficulties is the absence of legal frameworks: most Asian states do not have specific refugee laws, and many continue to reject international refugee laws. The very act of crossing national boundaries means that forced migrants implicate at least two, and often many more, states in their plight, and so cooperation between states is needed to provide effective solutions. In the Asian region few bilateral or regional agreements on this issue exist. Consequently, forced migration has become a serious and protracted dilemma that impacts Southeast Asia politically, socially, and economically. For those people who have fled their homeland to seek asylum in the region, the journey can be a dangerous, expensive, and long process. ASEAN, as the overarching cooperative organization in Asia, is best placed to facilitate agreements in order to develop effective responses to forced migrants in the region. Historically ASEAN has not responded well to forced migration issues, but recent developments signal a greater awareness and the role it might play. This has coincided with a push by Australia to raise the profile of the issue in regional forums such as the Bali Process, and to create its own bilateral agreements and temporary solutions.KeywordsAsylum SeekerBilateral AgreementAsian StateForced MigrationRegional AgreementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.