Managing Refugee and Asylum-Seeker: Legal and Institutional Frameworks in Malaysia and Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Legislation; Management; Policy; Protection

Abstract

Refugee and asylum seeker conflicts in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia, have become a pressing issue due to ongoing conflicts, statelessness, and irregular migration. Although both countries are major destinations and transit points, neither has a national refugee law, nor is either a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. This legislative gap creates a patchwork of policies, unequal protection, and an overreliance on global agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Consequently, refugees and asylum-seekers face problems such as prolonged detention, limited access to education, healthcare, formal employment, and increased risk of exploitation and human rights abuses. The research highlights the patterns of refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia and Malaysia, identifies areas of legal and institutional vulnerability, and advocates for the adoption of comprehensive refugee legislation, the establishment of dedicated national agencies, and enhanced inter-agency cooperation to promote a rights-based approach to refugee protection. It also calls for greater regional collaboration within ASEAN, more equitable burden-sharing, and community-based integration programmes to offset socio-economic and political challenges. Based on the experiences of Malaysia and Indonesia and their shared difficulties, this research charts a path towards a more standardised, humane, and sustainable approach. Ultimately, establishing robust legal and institutional frameworks is crucial not only for upholding international human rights standards but also for fostering regional stability and social cohesion in addressing Southeast Asia’s complex displacement challenges.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Asmida Ahmad
AU  - Nur Fazini Asro binti Ramzi Sulaiman
AU  - Yenny Febrianty
AU  - Wong Jian Han
AU  - Nadia binti Abu Hasan
AU  - Putri Syaidatul Akma binti Mohd Adzmi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
TI  - Managing Refugee and Asylum-Seeker: Legal and Institutional Frameworks in Malaysia and Indonesia
BT  - Proceedings of the UUM 13th International Legal Conference 2025 (UUMILC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 173
EP  - 192
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_13
ID  - Ahmad2026
ER  -