Limited ASEAN Regional Asylum-Seeking Mechanism: Case Study of Rohingya Asylum Seekers in Indonesia 2023

Abstract

With each host country’s different domestic mechanisms, the prevalent Rohingya crisis in Southeast Asia highlights the complexities of providing a strategic and effective mechanism towards asylum seekers and stateless individuals within the region. This study aims to interpret the status of ASEAN and its several members’ adherence to norms such as Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and ASEAN Way principles in its regional asylum-seeking mechanism – focusing on the case of Rohingya in Indonesia 2023. Despite the establishment of humanitarian bodies like the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) initiative, this research unveils the existence of inadequate efficiency of the mechanism and the urgency to aid the host countries in managing the crisis. More importantly, this study underscores the justification for changing the cornerstone of ASEAN in order to establish a comprehensive and cooperative regional asylum-seeking mechanism to ensure human rights, stability, and regional peace.

Keywords: ASEAN, Rohingya, Asylum-Seeking, Indonesia