The management of refugees by the non-ratification countries in ASEAN / Siti Zulaikha Nazharuddin

The growing crisis of refugees in Southeast Asia have received an attention from the international community. Southeast Asia is the main hosting countries of refugee populations in the region, yet they have weak protection of refugees. This is because the main destination countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are not ratify to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. These countries are unwilling to ratify the convention due to the concerned of state sovereignty, national interest and security threat. At the same time, they need to respect with the principle of nonrefoulement as generally accepted under customary international law. As a result, these countries have no legal framework to manage refugees and asylum seekers in the countries. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to scrutinize on the limitations in managing refugees by Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Then, this research aimed to identify the initiatives taken by ASEAN as the main regional organization in Southeast Asia. This research used content analysis to study on the limitations and initiatives in order to draw conclusion on the issue of refugees. This research found out that the most factors that contribute to the limitations in managing refugees are lack of domestic legal framework and the used of Immigration Act to address refugee matters that lead to weak protection on the rights of refugees. The results of this study hope that it can contributes to the understanding behaviour of states in the management of refugees as well as the role of ASEAN in handling the issue of refugees.