Labour Day - which falls on 1 May every year - was an eventful day in Malaysia. The ASEAN member state which recently reported a plunge in COVID-19 cases – announced plans to ease the country’s partial lockdown, known locally as the Movement Control Order (MCO). Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a special address to the nation that the government will enforce a conditional MCO beginning 4 May.

Dozens of Rohingya refugees believed to have come from two boats stranded at sea for weeks as they tried to reach Malaysia landed on the Bangladesh coast on Saturday, Rohingya community leaders said.Bangladesh has refused to let the two trawlers carrying about 500 people to land on its territory despite United Nations (UN) calls to allow them in as a powerful storm bears down on the region.Security officials said a small boat carrying about 40 people, including "starving" women and

The COVID-19 coronavirus has spread across the globe at an alarming pace with ominous consequences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic, where approximately 210 countries have been affected. The COVID-19 virus has infected over 3.4 million people, with more than 230,000 deaths globally. In Indonesia, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have crossed the 10,000 mark with 800 coronavirus-related deaths.

Xenophobic sentiments on social media against “the most discriminated people in the world” – the Rohingya of Myanmar – is on the rise in Malaysia.A few weeks ago, it was reported that Malaysia denied entry to a boat carrying around 200 Rohingya refugees which was spotted by an air force jet off the north-western island of Langkawi.

South Korea experienced one of the world’s largest initial outbreaks of COVID-19 outside China. But, unlike the United States (US) and many European countries, we have been able to contain and drastically reduce the spread of the virus, at least so far – and without imposing a nationwide lockdown.

The Rohingya are described as being “the most discriminated people in the world” by the United Nations (UN). They are one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities. However, the government of Myanmar refuses to recognise them as its citizens. In 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military – also known as the Tatmadaw – on the Rohingya Muslims sent many of them fleeing the country.

A refugee from Myanmar's tyrannised Rohingya minority, Lila Mubarak embodies perfectly the "poor, huddled masses" welcomed to the United States (US) for more than a century by a bronze plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty.The 27-year-old beams as she recounts her difficult path to citizenship a few short years after fleeing persecution in her homeland to make a new life in America's third city, Chicago. "I'm so happy to be an American citizen beca

The Indonesian government has strong reason to draw policy lessons from the international community in order to deal with over 14,000 transiting refugees and asylum seekers, before the situation deteriorates further.While the refugee issue is not a political priority in Indonesia, it seems to garner much traction for Australian politicians – where refugee issues dominate their agenda. Over the years, the Australian government has implemented an increasingly restrictive immigration policy.

The discovery of 28 abandoned human-trafficking camps and multiple unmarked mass graves in the dense jungle of Wang Kelian near the Thai-Malaysia border in May 2015 sent a shock wave through ASEAN and the rest of the world. Almost 800 victims were suspected to have been held in squalid conditions, in crudely built wooden cages and barbed wire that were too small for adults to even stand in.