Despite being long-term hosts to refugee populations, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are not yet part of the 1951 Refugee Convention. In all three states, refugees are regulated as discretionary humanitarian exceptions to immigration legislation. With contributions from scholars within and outside the region, this book promotes new thinking on protection of refugees and on resolving tensions between states, actors and institutions in the region. It evaluates the key concepts of sovereignty, security and humanitarianism in this context, the different bases of protection by state and non-state actors and the meaning of responsibility and regionalism in Southeast Asia.

Susan Kneebone is a Professorial Fellow and Senior Associate of the Asian Law Centre and Research Affiliate of the McMullin Statelessness Centre, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. She is the Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project 180100685 Indonesia’s Refugee Policies: Responsibility, Security and Regionalism and currently working on an Australia Research Council (‘ARC’) funded project on ‘The Role of Community Sponsorship for Refugee Resettlement in Australia’.

Reyvi Mariñas is a Research Fellow on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project 180100685 at Melbourne Law School. He has contributed to the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Asian Law, edited by Sarah Biddulph and Kathryn Taylor (forthcoming, Edward Elgar Publishing).

Antje Missbach is a Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany and a Partner Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project.  Some of her recent publications include Troubled Transit: Asylum seekers stuck in Indonesia (ISEAS, 2015) and The Criminalisation of People Smuggling in Indonesia and Australia: Asylum out of Reach (Routledge, 2022).

Max Walden is a PhD student and Research Assistant under the Australian Research Council Discovery Project 180100685 at Melbourne Law School.

“I believe this book is the first of its kind, especially in terms of the theoretical structure and goals ... it promises new thinking, insights and epistemologies.” • Liliana Lyra Jubilut, Catholic University of Santos, Brazil.

“This is a valuable contribution to the growing interdisciplinary literature on refugee protection in Southeast Asia. It represents some of the leading voices in the scholarly community engaged with refugee protection in Southeast Asia.” • Martin Jones, University of York