Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

This conceptualization has been evident for decades. For example, during the
Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indo-Chinese Refugees in the 1980s and
1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 79 persistently but
ambiguously referred to refugees as “illegal immigrants/displaced persons
(refugees) from Indochina” (ASEAN, 1979).
The region as a whole has struggled to embrace the ideals and many of
the practices associated with safeguarding migrants’ rights – whether regular
or irregular migrants, migrant workers, asylum seekers/refugees, students or
smuggled and trafficked migrants. This can be seen in the weakness of legal and
policy frameworks (both national and regional) relevant to the rights of migrants,
including asylum seekers and refugees. In contrast, there has been a strong focus
on countering the transnational criminal aspects of migration, as reflected in
the region’s embrace of relatively new international instruments and procedures
developed to address the involvement of organized criminal groups in migration,
including through trafficking and smuggling. For example, as shown in Table 9.1,
all States in the region are party to the 2000 United Nations Convention against
Transnational Crime, almost all are party to the related Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(Trafficking Protocol), and most are party to the related Protocol against the
Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air (Smuggling Protocol). Conversely,
few States in the region are party to the Refugee Convention (and related
Protocol), even fewer have ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO)
and UN migrant workers conventions and UN statelessness conventions.
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ASEAN Member States include the following: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, with Timor-
Leste and Papua New Guinea attending as observers.
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9. South-East Asia and Australia