The Asia Pacific is the site of some of the world's most acute and protracted refugee situations, being home to two of the largest refugee-producing countries in the world, Myanmar and Afghanistan from which persecution and armed violence continue to drive men, women, and children fleeing to neighbouring countries within the region. Two of the largest populations of stateless people in the world live in the Asia Pacific, a region for which climate-related displacement is predicted to rise in the near future. 

 

INTRODUCTION TO APRRN

The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) is a collaborative movement that advances the equal rights and inclusion of refugees and other people in need of protection—including refugees, asylum seekers, torture survivors and complainants, trafficked persons, IDPs, stateless persons, migrants in vulnerable situations and returnees—in the Asia Pacific region so they may have equal and adequate access to assistance and protection, and to timely durable solutions. APRRN is the only regional organisation working to convene momentum and direct collaboration to advance refugee inclusion and equitable rights in the Asia Pacific. APRRN is an open and growing network of over 200 individuals and organisations in 28 countries across the globe. APRRN is led by two women with lived refugee experience. The network’s current Chair is a formerly stateless Rohingya woman.

WHAT IS HAPPENING

​​There are 4.4 million refugees and asylum seekers in the Asia Pacific, who lack fundamental human rights or inclusion in civil society as many states in the region do not have any refugee protection frameworks or systems for advancing policy. The region maintains the lowest number of signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the majority of national protection systems are ad hoc and precarious. Asia Pacific thus displays some of the most severe violations of human rights for refugees and displaced persons. 

 

WHY WE THINK THIS IS IMPORTANT

Advocacy conducted in silo is ineffective. APRRN facilitates cross-cultural collaboration and regional action of otherwise isolated human rights groups, galvanising and directing momentum to ensure the region is effectively, safely, and collaboratively demanding action and thereby advancing the socioeconomic inclusion and equitable human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. 

APRRN works to build strong alliances and partnerships to advance refugee rights and address the needs of refugees and migrants, directly contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals; we facilitate the collaboration that is essential to policy change.

APRRN’s action is critical to ensure governments in the Asia Pacific implement refugee rights legislation, to prevent and end severe violations of fundamental human rights such as immigration detention, Rohingya persecution, and loss of life at sea. By working together as a regional network, our ability to hold national governments to account is magnified, and therefore we can achieve the greatest inclusive policy and legislative change to advance the equal rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the region.

WHAT APRRN IS DOING TO RESPOND

APRRN’s Secretariat is a trusted advisor and crucial resource; we deliver the essential toolkit to facilitate joint, comprehensive, and far-reaching refugee rights advocacy in the region, to ensure refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers have access to equitable assistance, socioeconomic inclusion, protection, and timely durable solutions. This includes: 

1. Delivering capacity building on refugee rights and advocacy

2. Distributing emerging information and sharing best practices around refugee rights and advocacy across the Asia Pacific region

3. Convening forums and learning exchanges for members and non-members to facilitate essential discourse

4. Supporting and enabling collaborative advocacy action to advance refugee rights in the Asia Pacific region.