Second meeting of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration | January 2016

The second Dialogue meeting took place in late January 2016. Download key documents below and read on for more about the meeting, including photos.

Key documents for the second Dialogue meeting:

Participant profiles

Full agenda and participant list

Briefing papers

Dr Hassan Wirajuda’s keynote speech at the Dialogue dinner

Further information: 

For the Dialogue home page click here 

To find out more about the rationale behind the Dialogue process click here.

To read more about the first Dialogue meeting in Melbourne in August 2015 click here.

The second meeting of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration was held in Bangkok on 28-30 January 2016.

The Dialogue was hosted in Thailand by Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP), and enjoyed the support of Dr Surin Pitsuwan, former Director General of ASEAN, and Dr Hassan Wirajuda, former Foreign Minister of Indonesia, who both addressed Dialogue members and urged us to continue pursuing solutions in this important area.

Sriprapha Petcharamesree  (IHRP) and Peter Hughes (CPD Fellow)
Objectives and discussion 

We hoped to build on the trust, creativity and intent we had established in our first meeting, while welcoming in a strong and diverse group of new Dialogue members. New members included David Irvine (former Australian Director General of Security), Bhornchart Bunnag (former Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council, Thailand), Muhd Khair Razman bin Mohamed Annuar (Principal Private Secretary to Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister) and Janet Lim (Former UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations). We believe the group demonstrated great dynamism and good will with an excellent cross section and depth of perspectives from the region. 

The second Dialogue meeting focussed on better long-term preparedness for mass forced displacement in the region, including the national capacities, policies, standards and regional structures needed to respond better to all forms of forced migration now, and into the future.

Dialogue members considered the case study of Rohingya out-flows in the region to understand lessons and possible improvements. Options for more active and resilient regional architecture to respond to current and future population movements were canvassed. The strong links between forced migration and smuggling, trafficking and transnational crime were also discussed.

Dialogue recommendations and outcomes 

The Dialogue believes the Bali Process can and must play an important role in ensuring more effective and predictable responses to regional displacement events. Timed to come immediately before the Bali Process Ad Hoc Group Senior Officials meeting (in Bangkok in early February 2016), the second Dialogue meeting made recommendations to the upcoming Bali Process Ministerial Meeting (scheduled for March 2016).

These recommendations were presented in a letter from the Dialogue to the Co-Chairs of the Bali Process Ad Hoc Group Senior Officials meeting on 31 January 2016 in the following terms:

The purpose of this letter is to submit the Dialogue’s recommendations for the upcoming Bali Process Ministerial Meeting. We urge you and your colleagues attending the AHG SOM for the Bali Process to give them full consideration.

Background

The Dialogue is an emerging regional forum for independent and inclusive policy development on forced migration. Our objective is to support the development of a more effective, durable and dignified approach to forced migration. We comprise individuals from government, non-government organisations, policy and academic institutions, and international organisations from within and beyond the region, acting in their personal capacities.

Forced migration around the world is a persistent and increasing global phenomenon that unless properly managed will have permanent and intensifying negative impacts on countries in our region. A collective, coordinated response to challenges associated with both sudden and ongoing episodes of displacement, regardless of cause, is vital to ensure continued regional security, harmony and prosperity.

The Dialogue believes the Bali Process can and must play an important role in ensuring more effective and predictable responses to regional displacement events. Forced migration, if not properly and consistently addressed, contributes directly to smuggling, trafficking and transnational crime.

Just as individual members of the Bali Process plan for natural disasters, so too should the Bali Process plan for sudden and ongoing displacement of people. A strong and flexible regional architecture for dealing with current and future episodes of displacement is urgently required. 

Recommendations 

The Dialogue recommends the Bali Process Ministerial Meeting authorise senior officials to:

(a) review the response to the 2015 Andaman Sea situation, the resulting caseload, and ongoing maritime movements there and in the Bay of Bengal, within the commitments and principles outlined in the Regional Cooperation Framework (‘RCF’), to share those lessons among Bali Process members and work to implement necessary improvements; and

(b) take a broader focus and, drawing on the RCF, make any recommendations necessary to improve national and regional contingency planning and preparedness to enable more predictable and effective responses on forced migration, utilising existing capacity such as in ASEAN, IOM, UNHCR and civil society. Recommendations should reflect the principles that effective policy responses require shared responsibility and distributed capacities.

The Dialogue offers to support the Bali Process in these endeavours to develop a more effective regional architecture over time.

These recommendations are made with a view to upcoming fora relevant to the Bali Process, including the UN High-Level meeting on ways to address large movements of refugees and migrants on 19 September 2016. 

The Ad Hoc Group Senior Officials have responded positively to the recommendations made by the Dialogue. The full text of the co-chairs statement from the Ad Hoc Group Senior Officials meeting on 2 February will be available soon here.

The Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration hopes to support the Bali Process in its endeavours to develop a more effective regional architecture over time. We intend to develop stronger links to other regional forums and processes, including ASEAN, over the course of the Dialogue.

Government and non-government Dialogue members universally showed strong commitment to the overall process and maintaining involvement. The next two meetings will be held in Kuala Lumpur in September 2016 and Jakarta in early 2017.

We are please to say the Dialogue is already providing a flexible, sustainable and credible platform for regional cooperation and for influencing government policy.

 

Asia Dialogue of Forced Migration speakers – Surin Pitsuwan (former Director General of ASEAN), Dr Sansanee C. Chaiyaroj (Mahidol University), Travers McLeod (CEO CPD), and Hassan Wirajuda (former Indonesia Foreign Minister)

John Menadue (CPD Fellow), Alice Nah (University of York) and Andy Rachmianto (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia)

 Rafendi Djamin (former Indonesian representative AICHR), Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti (LIPI), and Alice Nah (University of York)

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