Population and censuses - Open Development Mekong

More injured Rohingya arriving in Bangladesh as Myanmar war intensifies

More Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh from Myanmar with war-related injuries amid escalating conflict between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) in western Rakhine State, according to international medical group Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. MSF said its teams in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, treated 39 people for conflict-related injuries including […]

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ASEAN strengthens cooperation on protection of migrant workers

Jakarta (VNA) – The 16th Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (16th ACMW Meeting) has been held recently in Jakarta via videoconference. The event was hosted and chaired by Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower as the ACMW Chair 2023-2024. […]

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Rights group: Bangladesh failing to protect Rohingya against rising violence in camps

Bangladesh is not doing enough to protect Rohingya from increasing violence by armed groups and criminal gangs operating in the refugee camps near the country’s border with Myanmar, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. Some of these stateless refugees who fled from persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are all the more vulnerable because Bangladeshi authorities […]

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China’s human trafficking syndicates lure away hundreds from Southeast Asian countries: Report

In southeast Asian region, Chinese human trafficking syndicates operate in nexus with local authorities in countries for luring away hundreds of people on the pretext of providing them decent jobs but are forced to work in the illegal cryptocurrency business, brothels, and massage parlours, Mekong News reported. According to Mekong News, this is modern-day slavery […]

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Escaping the chaos of home, Myanmar migrants face exploitation abroad

Forced to flee her Magway village in southeast Myanmar during a junta attack, Theingi Soe spent a “terrible” month living in makeshift shelters in the jungle during the rainy season. In her misery, she began to plot another escape – to a life in a country beyond the conflict. An acquaintance put her in touch […]

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Talk but no action? Cambodian workers in Thailand see a lot of room for improvement

Thai-Cambodian discussions at the recent ASEAN summit put labour issues on the table. Despite the pleasant chat, migrant workers in Thailand have yet to see what, if any, measures the authorities will adopt to help address their problems. In a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits on 10 November […]

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Climate change and dams force older residents to leave Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

At 63, Nguyen Thi Ngoc got her first full-time ‘company’ job as a security guard in Ho Chi Minh City. She’d never been to a city before taking the job in early 2021, but the former farmer, originally from the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, is indifferent to the urban bustle of the country’s second […]

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Thailand Sets Long-Awaited Rules for Vetting Asylum Seekers

Rights groups say the long-awaited rules Thailand’s government approved this month for screening foreigners seeking refuge from persecution in their home countries are likely to leave many worthy applicants in the lurch. The United Nations refugee agency says Thailand currently hosts about 5,000 “urban refugees and asylum seekers,” though some rights groups say the real […]

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Thailand’s Anti-Torture Bill Could Finally End Refugee Push-Backs

Thailand took a momentous step on 24 August —not only because of a shock decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties, but also because parliament finally passed a historic anti-torture bill. Once fully enacted, the Bill, formally known as the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and […]

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Thailand rolls out red carpet for wealthy foreign workers with 10-year visa, tax breaks

Thailand, called the “Land of Smiles,” is rolling out the red carpet for foreign workers, joining a bevy of countries looking to use the immigration route to boost their economies. Top professionals, eligible high-net-worth individuals and retirees can start applying online from Thursday to stay for as long as 10 years in Thailand, according to […]

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