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Afraid of the Light: Unmasking the Discourse on Irregular Migration and Its Implications for Migration Governance in ASEAN

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This paper attempts to investigate the issue of irregular migration in the ASEAN region. The space and attention given to a burgeoning reality of irregular migration is yet to be given its due space at national policy-level and regional discussions. The primary objective of the paper is to function as a baseline study for future advocacy on protection of the rights of undocumented migrants in the region. Primarily, it focuses on the governance of migration, or the lack thereof, by contextualising the current status of irregular migrants in major destination countries of the ASEAN region, being Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

Product details
Date of Publication
August 2019
Publisher
Migrant Forum in Asia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung Southeast Asia
Number of Pages
170
Licence
Language of publication
English
ISBN / DOI
978 – 621 – 96178 – 0 – 2
Table of contents

Acknowledgements  3

Abstract  6

Abbreviations and Acronyms 7

Introduction 8

About the Study 17

Sampling 18

Methodology 19

Challenges 20

Malaysia 25

Indonesia as an origin country 38

Bangladesh 50

Nepal 58

Myanmar 69

Case Study : The Plantations of Perak 75

Civil Society Response 82

Thailand 91

The Thailand-Myanmar Corridor 100

Case Study: Mae Sot – Gateways and Revolving Doors 106

Singapore 117

Case Study: Indonesian female, TIP Referral 124

Cambodia 129

Civil Society Response 135

Case Study: Kampong Cham and Phnom Penh 139

Conclusion 153

Recommendation 158

Appendix 1 162

Guiding Questions (20 mins) 162

For Embassies 163

For CSO’s 164

References 165