Maritime refugee journeys: Solidarity, regional processing and saving lives at sea

The exodus of Indochinese ‘boat people’ from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos spanned more than two decades from the 1970s to the 1990s. This movement of over 3 million refugees via dangerous maritime routes elicited a global response, including the Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) for Indochinese Refugees which was the first international attempt to introduce region-wide processing of asylum seekers. This session explores the impact of maritime displacement on displaced communities and evaluates the potential of regional initiatives such as the CPA to develop our understanding of the potentials of ‘regional processing’ today.  

This session is part of the 15th International Refugee Law Seminar Series: Moments in Refugee History and the Development of the Modern Refugee Regime: Understanding refugee law and policy today

This seminar series probes key thematic issues relating to the law and policy of refugee protection today, using important – and often less-recognised – moments in refugee history to further our understandings of developments in these fields. 

By providing a forum for scholars of history and contemporary refugee law and policy to engage, the cross-disciplinary series will explore the enduring legacies of key geo-political events and processes such as nationalism, colonialism, and capitalism, in the evolution of the today’s refugee regime. 

This series is convened by the Refugee Law Initiative in collaboration with Refugee History.