Population and censuses
Australian government denies Cambodia refugee deal collapse
The Australian government has said a deal to resettle refugees in Cambodia is on track, despite media reports to the contrary. Under an agreement signed in September last year, Australia is paying Cambodia to take in refugees rejected from its detention centre on Nauru island. But so ...
Vietnamese laborers flock to China, Laos to work illegally despite issues
According to statistics from Vietnam’s Lao Cai province’s department of labor, invalids and social affairs, every year about 4,000 laborers leave the province for China. Quang Van Tinh, who lives in Muong Ang district’s Bung Lao commune, still feels angry when recalling his time in China. After ...
Poverty rate falling as services improve, 2014 survey finds
The poverty rate has reduced dramatically in rural households from 27.1 per cent in 2012 to 13.2 per cent in 2014 while access to public services such as vocational and educational training and health care has improved. This was revealed at a workshop held on 26 ...
Foreign arrivals to Vietnam up 12 pct in August
Vietnam is expected to welcome 664, 985 person-times of international visitors in August, up 12 percent compared to July and up 7.5 percent year-on-year, said the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on 26 August. Keep reading ...
Labour shortages in Sihanoukville
Aiming to one day become a major manufacturing base in Cambodia, Sihanoukville faces an uphill battle in attracting workers, provincial officials have said. Yow Khemara, director of the Department of Labour and Vocational Training at Preah Sihanouk province, said Sihanoukville currently lacks about 4,000 workers in ...
Police interview Lao 'slaves' over trafficking
Thirteen illegal Lao labour immigrants who were rescued from an alleged “slavery farm” in Nakhon Pathom are being treated as witnesses in a suspected human trafficking case. The immigrants, some as young as 15 years old, will not be charged with illegal entry into Thailand because they ...
Asia migrant crisis: New mass graves on Malaysia-Thai border
New mass graves with 24 bodies thought to be those of migrants have been found in Malaysia, police say. The graves were found in the state of Perlis near the Thai border not far from 139 grave sites unearthed in May, Perlis police chief Shafie Ismail ...
Lao workers 'caged' in slave case
A bank manager has been charged after 12 Lao workers — some as young as 14 — were found enslaved and kept in cages on a farm outside Bangkok. The workers, aged between 14 and 25 years old, were found sleeping in small spaces framed by ...
Remittances to Ho Chi Minh City hit $2.42 bil in Jan-July
Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City rose 12 percent year-on-year in the first seven months thanks partly to an increased interest in the property market from overseas Vietnamese, local media reported. Keep reading ...
The labeling problem in Southeast Asia's refugee crisis
In the ‘crisis’ involving the displaced Rohingya people in Southeast Asia, the preferred institutional label is “irregular migrants.” It is a term which implies that migration is well-regulated, which is not the case in South East Asia. The ‘labeling’ or construction of identities of social groups ...
