Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

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SOUTH-EAST ASIA AND AUSTRALIA
Introduction
Anne Gallagher and Marie McAuliffe
Internal displacement, refugee and stateless populations and asylum
and irregular labour migration flows have long posed challenges for South-East
Asia as a region. Multiple drivers of irregular migration – such as conflict, interethnic
and broader community violence, natural disasters, profound inequality
and lack of opportunity – feature in many parts of the region. Entry and border
management are particularly challenging because of archipelagic and isolated
borders, and further complicated by traditions of informal (often seasonal)
migration for work. Illicit migratory practices, such as the corrupt behaviour
that facilitates migrant smuggling and human trafficking, are endemic and have
proved difficult to manage. The political, economic and social costs of irregular
migration are growing for most States of the region, and it is unsurprising that
this issue is now firmly established on the political, policy and research agendas
in both South-East Asia 78 and Australia. Within this broader landscape, migrant
smuggling has emerged as a persistent feature of irregular migration and a
source of pressing concern to governments of the region.
While the situation has been markedly different in Australia (where the
focus has remained squarely on traditional forced migrant categories of asylum
seekers and refugees), the policy discourses in South-East Asia have tended to
focus on “irregular migration” and “illegal/irregular migrants”, with a strong
leaning towards labour migration and migrant workers (Nethery and Silverman,
2015; Kneebone, 2015). This reflects the nature of international migration in
the region: the search for work has always been the primary driver for irregular
migration in South-East Asia (UNODC, 2015:vi). However, it is also apparent
that there has been a preference on the part of policymakers to conceptualize
and depict international migration in the region in specific ways, including by
downplaying asylum flows and populations in need of international protection.
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The United Nations defines South-East Asia as Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam
(see United Nations Statistics Division, 2013).
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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