ASEAN, refugees and economic migrants

This week, Channel 3's ASEAN Checklist team clarifies the difference between a refugee and an economic migrant and looks at ASEAN's readiness (or lack thereof) to combat those who traffick in them.

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ASEAN checklist appears each Wednesday on Channel 3 during the noontime segment of Asia Connect. The presenters are Michael Chick, a man with extensive media experience ranging from reporting to advertising to documentary production and Nillaya Treeworawat, a Thammasat graduate in International Relations who appears regularly on Channel 3's Asia Connect and World Connect.

The video has subtitles in Thai, but the Bangkok Post learning channel has the actual English transcript, so it's really a "two-in-one" lesson. In this segment on the refugee and economic migrant situation, find out why ASEAN likely faces a much bigger human trafficking problem than first thought. Do the maths.

ASEAN, refugees and economic migrants

Sawadikhap/kha.

The airwaves are still buzzing with news about the Rohingya refugees. You’re absolutely right. Perhaps it’s time to clarify some definitions. An "economic migrant" is one who travels to a different country to seek employment, while a "refugee" is one who is running away from persecution, war, or genocide. The distinction is clear.

For the record, the Philippines is the only country in ASEAN who is a signatory of the United Nations Refugee Convention. Is that why they were the first to offer help to the Rohingya refugees while the other three countries turned them away?

Yes. Human Traffickers thrive on this, and make a lot of money transporting refugees, asylum-seekers and economic migrants.

Let’s quickly look at the most popular cross-border routes in ASEAN. You have the sea-routes, and the over-land routes. Malaysia initially arrested 12 officers, but later released 10 of them. Thailand on the other hand, has at least 51 out of 84 suspects in custody.

I believe that the number of human-traffickers should be much much higher. Why’s that? Because it would be quite impossible for 53 men alone to control 140 Rohingya Camps, no matter how efficient they are.

Simple math will tell you that if it takes 10 men to run a camp, you’d at least have 1,400 traffickers to arrest. Looks like ASEAN needs to pull their weight and make a quick decision on this, because it’s starting to look like a much bigger problem than what most people think. Yes. I’m Mike, and I’m Nin. See you next week on ASEAN Checklist.

Sawadikhap/kha.

You can see the first segment of this series here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/583601/asean-checklist-who-ready-for-the-aec

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/589525/asean-refugees-and-economic-migrants