The lived experience of forced displacement often implies trauma and can lead to an increased prevalence of mental health conditions and challenges to psychosocial well-being. Long ignored, this fact has recently been acknowledged by the international community and led to new research and interventions. In this context, the mental health repercussions of immigration detention on…
Expert Commentary by Dr Nyi Nyi Kyaw and Caitlin McCaffrie Myanmar has long been the primary source of displacement in Southeast Asia, resulting in refugees and people seeking asylum from Myanmar living across Southeast and South Asia, often in precarious circumstances. This paper aims to unpack the current situation facing those displaced from Myanmar and…
The De facto Authorities (DfA) imposed restrictions on women and girls’ education in 2022, banning secondary schooling for girls throughout Afghanistan and suspending tertiary education for women. The decreased access of girls to secondary and tertiary education will not only impact girls and women but the Afghan economy as a whole. Restrictions on female education,…
Over the past 40 years, Afghanistan has gone through multiple phases of migration, with Pakistan and Iran being the primary destination for millions of Afghan refugees and other migrants. Initially, Iran and Pakistan both opened their borders to their neighbours and Muslim brothers and sisters. Afghans have crossed and continue to cross these two borders,…
Education transforms lives, paving the way to better futures and livelihood opportunities. In times of crisis, including long-term displacement, education can play a life-saving and life-sustaining role. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, refugee and stateless children remain excluded from formal education in public schools and are thus hindered from reaching their full potential. This policy brief is…
Regional implications of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis The Rohingya, the world’s largest stateless population, have experienced decades of persecution, systematic discrimination, and targeted violence by successive Myanmar authorities. This humanitarian crisis has resulted in the mass displacement of over 1.6 million Rohingya throughout the wider Asia region, including 952,300 in Bangladesh, 106,100 in Malaysia, 21,600…
On 26 September 2023, the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of Pakistan issued the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan. According to the proposed plan, it is intended to “regulate the foreigners in Pakistan and to ensure that the foreigners staying illegally or overstaying their visa validity are deported back to their parent countries.” This…
In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees. The GCR – the culmination of a two-year process of extensive consultations with Member States, international organisations, refugees, civil society, the private sector, and experts – articulated a fresh model of cooperation and joint objectives. The four GCR objectives are: 1.…
Over 1.6 million Rohingya remain in situations of protracted displacement in Bangladesh and the wider Asia region, including in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Major host countries of Rohingya refugees have resisted accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Concerned about ‘pull factors’ bringing more Rohingya and other refugees to their territories, and…
According to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix “Baseline Mobility and Emergency Community-Based Needs Assessment, Round 15” conducted between March and April 2022 close to 5.9 million persons were deemed to be internally displaced in Afghanistan. Almost one-third (31%), were displaced between January 2021 and April 2022. The analysis produced to date in the country shows that…