Chee-khoon Chan

The migration landscape in Southeast Asia is overwhelmingly characterized by temporary labor migration. Home to major labor-exporting countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar) as well as labor-receiving countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei), the ASEAN region also receives large numbers of labor migrants from South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh, India), and is a significant source for emigrant and labor migrant streams to North America and the GCC countries. In Malaysia, refugees and asylum seekers currently total about 150,000, ninety percent of whom are from Myanmar (of whom, two-fifths are Rohingyas, one-third Chins) (UNHCR-Malaysia, October 2016). Numbers of Acehnese, southern Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Vietnamese, Cambodians have declined markedly as hostilities in the source countries subsided. By comparison, documented foreign workers are more than 10-fold in numbers (1,950,327, MoHR Aug 2016). As for undocumented migrants, a 2011 amnesty exercise in Malaysia registered 1,303,126 persons, a lower bound for a figure which is believed to rival and very likely exceed the figure for documented migrant workers. Undocumented migrants (large numbers in Thailand as well) are especially vulnerable to exploitation, intimidation, and abuse by employers, labor contractors (brokers), human traffickers and smugglers, and enforcement personnel. Furthermore, the management of novel and other infectious outbreaks (e.g. Sars, MERS, TB, HIV/AIDS, malaria, dengue) is made more difficult when undocumented migrants have a strong incentive to avoid contact with government agencies.