Greetings! This is a monthly update from BEBESEA to our valuable friends, colleagues and resource persons who have participated in and supported our activities.  

News from BEBESEA:

UPR Forum: Catch up on our UPR discussion forum on migration “Civil Society’s Advocacy to the 4th Cycle Universal Periodic Review: Indonesia and the Philippines” held on August 5th 2022. The brief report on the forum is available on BEBESEA’s Website and Instagram.

Statement: We released a statement, “Stop Criminalizing Irregular Migration: End Preventable Deaths in Immigration Detention”, expressing our serious concern about the deaths of  migrant workers, including those from Indonesia and the Philippines, in an immigration detention centre in Sabah, Malaysia, as being monitored by the Coalition of Sovereign Migrant Workers (Koalisi Buruh Migran Berdaulat or KBMB). We call for all states to prioritize and work towards alternatives to detention as a more humane and rights-based approach to management of irregular migrants.

C20 Webinar: BEBESEA Co-Founder, Mariko Hayashi, participated as one of the speakers in the webinar “Towards the September 2022 G20 Labour Employment Ministerial Meeting: To what extent has the G20 paid attention to groups of migrant workers and the problem of human trafficking” on 31 August 2022. Watch the recording of the webinar on Migrant Care Youtube Channel.

International Youth Day: Anastasya Wulandari Hasyim, Co-Founder of RUMI Jepang and 2021 BEBESEA Academy Alumni as well as Story Fellow shares her story and thoughts on Youth nowadays to commemorate the International Youth Day. Read more on BEBESEA Instagram.

Video: How do you say “migrant workers” in your language? Ena and Mariko show us the Tagalog and Japanese translation of the term. They also tell us their hopes for the migrant community.

Story Fellowship – Documentary: Indra’s showcases stories of her fellow domestic workers in the self-produced documentary film unveiling facts of the lives of migrant workers in Hong Kong during and post pandemic and their struggles to defend themselves after being accused of doing the “Job Hopping”. The full documentary can be watched on BEBESEA Youtube Channel.

News from Our Network:

Book Launch: “Lost in the Calm” written by Ali Reza Yawari, one of our Cross-Regional Academy alumni, is an anthology documenting the author’s personal life as a displaced person and victim of persecution and war, who was forced to flee his homeland and seek refuge in another country. The book contains prose and poetry coming out of his deep emotions of loss, struggles to maintain hope, and story of survival. “Lost in the Calm” is now available to purchase. Place your order here https://bit.ly/LostintheCalm-PO. 

Featured Article:

• “Give Myanmar asylum seekers a chance” (Bangkok Post) by Tual Sawn Khai brings to light his research on the rights that should be earned by the asylum seekers as part of the society.
• Lennon Ying-Dah Wong, BEBESEA’s advisory board member, alongside of Ratih Kanibawa, was quoted in “Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan sweat over China tensions” (Nikkei Asia) discussing about Taiwan-China’s tension and its impacts on Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan.

Conference: During Plenary 6 of Global Peace Building of the Regional Conference of Youth Asia and the Pacific in Ormoc City, Philippines, Myanmar delegate Tual Sawn Khai discussed about how the Myanmar military coup exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and the UN, ASEAN, and the international community’s ineffective response to Myanmar’s military brutal human rights violations against the citizens has threatened ASEAN and global security.

If you have any resources or events you would like BEBESEA to share widely, please do get in touch!