On 10 June, APRRN secretariat (Hafsar) participated and spoke at the World Refugee Day event, “Building Bridges Towards Refugee Dignity” organised by Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF}/(Doctors Without Borders) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, highlighting the importance of self-reliance and access to livelihood for refugees while they are in transit countries. Letting refugees work legally in Malaysia would benefit the country, say advocates. “The problem with Malaysia’s refugee crisis is that it’s often seen through a security lens, not a human rights one,” said Hafsar Tameesuddin, a Rohingya refugee and co-secretary-general of the Bangkok-based Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network. Read More Here

 

On 11 June, Hafsar also spoke at “The ASEAN Research Center (ARC)-UNHCR Research Conference on Refugee Studies and Forced Displacement, where they emphasised the social cohesion, role of refugee-hosting/transit countries in empowering the refugee communities and upholding nonrefoulement policy in those countries. Hafsar was also interviewed and featured by 13 National Radio and Awani Astro, a Malaysian TV channel, in commemoration of World Refugee Day. Watch Here

 

Life of Hafsar Tameesuddin: From stateless in Myanmar to self-reliant in New Zealand.

 

For World Refugee Day 2025, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), Caritas, and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Asia Pacific co-organised as, Klaus and Hafsar moderated and spoke at the event, “A Light of Hope for Refugees in Waiting”. Watch Here

 

25-27 June, Hafsar from the APRRN secretariat attended the Consultation on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways (CRCP) and delivered members consultation summary on the Complementary Pathway at closed-door meetings with resettlement countries, highlighting the roles of civil societies.

 

Refugee Voices Through Community-Led Research

From April to June 2025, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) successfully coordinated an innovative research initiative that put refugee communities at the center of evidence-based advocacy. Seven Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs) from Malaysia, and Indonesia, completed their first formal research projects, focusing on critical protection issues affecting their communities.

The three-month program provided comprehensive support including research methodology workshops, ongoing mentorship, and funding for each organization. Participating RLOs examined diverse topics from healthcare access to education barriers, with many of them conducting their first-ever community-based research across multiple provinces and expanding their connections.

Key Achievements:

• Enhanced research capacity for seven refugee-led organizations
• Expanded community connections, with some RLOs reaching over 300 previously unconnected individuals
• Generated actionable policy recommendations presented to agencies
• Established sustainable research skills that organizations continue using beyond the project

The initiative culminated in a dissemination webinar on June 30, 2025, where RLOs presented their findings to stakeholders across Southeast Asia. As one participant noted, this was their first opportunity to “participate in and maintain ownership over data, research, and advocacy within their refugee communities.”

This project demonstrates the powerful impact of promoting and prompting refugee-led research, providing communities with the tools and resources needed to advocate for themselves using evidence gathered from their own experiences and insights.

 

Ali Reza Yawari, MSCO at APRRN, spoke at the World Refugee Day event in Jakarta, Indonesia. He presented his documentary film “Fighting Forward”, which captures the powerful journey of a refugee athlete navigating life in limbo while actively contributing to the local community. The film underscores the critical importance of social inclusion, resilience, and the enduring human spirit. Watch Here

 

On 17 June, Ali Reza Yawari attended a meeting in Jakarta with other refugee representatives of the community to meet with the Director of Human Rights Watch Australia, Daniela Gavshon and her team to discuss the pressing challenges faced by refugees in Indonesia. The discussion centred on the urgent human rights concerns impacting the refugee community, with a particular focus on advocacy priorities and the need for a human rights-based approach from the Australian government. Yawari emphasised the importance of coordinated action among responsible stakeholders to enhance the protection of refugee rights and to work toward more durable and sustainable solutions for displaced populations in Indonesia.

 

Members Spotlight!

The Border Consortium (TBC) 

TBC has been working with refugees who fled conflict in Burma/Myanmar since 1984. For more than three decades, TBC has been the main provider of food, shelter and other forms of support to the refugees in camps in western Thailand. TBC is the main provider of food, shelter and other forms of support to approximately 87,000 refugees from Burma/Myanmar living in nine camps in western Thailand. It also supports recovery and community-driven development in conflict-affected areas in southeast Burma/Myanmar. Visit the Website

 

ACTIONS AND NEWS FROM MEMBERS

Shabnam Safa OAM: A voice to improve refugee plight. Shabnam Safa OAM, a refugee advocate and member of the Australian Refugee Advisory Panel, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia as part of the King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List.

 

A Stitch in Time: Bangkok Refugees embroider their life stories (art exhibit)

There are at least 6,000 refugees who live in Bangkok who are registered with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and thousands more are in the process of seeking asylum. Where do they all come from? How are they surviving day to day? What challenges do they face in finding food, shelter, safety, and income? What do they fear? And what is their plan for the future and path to a better life? On World Refugee Day, advocates and experts answered those and other questions and celebrated the creativity and ingenuity of several groups of highland refugees from Vietnam who are using a unique way to tell their stories and earn income through embroidery about their lived experiences.

A panel of experts spoke about the triptychs, the refugee community making them, and the wider issues facing urban refugees in Bangkok. 

 

As a part of delegations organised and supported by the Refugee Council of Australia, Noor Azizah and Craig Foster, leaders of an Australian delegation visiting the world's largest refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, spoke to France 24 about the plight of the Rohingya community there.

 

‘Nothing about us without us’ needs to be a legal and normative right of refugees, not just an aspirational goal. On World Refugee Day 2025, a global working group of refugee experts and allies released a historic document for public consultation: the Independent Declaration on the Right of Refugees and Others Experiencing Displacement or Statelessness to Participate in Decisions that Affect Them.  This is the story behind the declaration.

 

FRANCE: JMBF Statement on World Refugee Day 2025 – Refugees Deserve Rights, Not Rejection

On World Refugee Day, JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) reaffirms its unwavering commitment to defending the rights, dignity, and humanity of refugees worldwide. As a refugee-led organization based in France, our voice emerges not from theory but from lived experience, shaped by resilience, resistance, and the relentless struggle for justice. Today, a growing climate of fear and hostility surrounds refugees. In France and across Europe, those seeking safety are too often met not with solidarity but with suspicion. Refugees face legal uncertainty, institutional neglect, racial discrimination, and social exclusion. Instead of protection, we encounter persecution. Instead of being heard, we are silenced.

 

Refugee Council of Australia published the 2025 Complementary Pathways Vision and Roadmap for Australia - mapping existing pathways and suggesting short, medium, and long-term steps. 

 

Noor Azizah spoke at the UN Human Rights Council about what they saw in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp last week.

 

This World Refugee Day, Skill Path has joined forces with the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) to launch a new Youth Advisory Group to guide the development of the ground-breaking Refugee Student Settlement Pathway.

 

News from the region

Afghanistan: 

Terminating Temporary Protected Status for Afghans is an abomination. For the 10,000 Afghan refugees who have made the U.S. home after fleeing a growing humanitarian crisis under Taliban rule, the future is no longer even temporarily secure. On May 12, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it will terminate Afghanistan’s designation for Temporary Protected Status, effective July 14, devastating not only its beneficiaries but also the communities that have embraced them. 

 

Large Wave of Afghan Refugee Families Head Back Home. The influx of Afghan refugees returning from Iran has surged following Israeli attacks on Tehran since June 13, with daily entries reaching up to 10,000 last week.

 

See also, UNHCR: Key statistics and latest updates

• Pakistan-Afghanistan - Returns Emergency Response, as of 03 June 2025
• Iran-Afghanistan - Returns Emergency Response, as of 03 June 2025

 

The number of Afghan refugees returning from Iran increased to 8,000-10,000 per day as a result of the Israel-Iran war, according to local media reports. A local government official said authorities in Afghanistan’s western Herat province had established a committee to handle the spike in the number of people crossing the Islam Qala border from Iran. Meanwhile, UNHCR warned that the increased numbers of returnees could further destabilise Afghanistan, with more than 1.2 million Afghans having returned from Iran and Pakistan so far this year.

 

Thousands of Afghans Return from Iran After Losing All Belongings. Many said they had lived in Iran for years and had built a life there, but during their return, they were unable to bring even their household items with them.

 

Updates on refugees in Iran:

• Expiration of Headcount Slips: As of 20 March, headcount slips for over 2 million Afghans in Iran expired, leaving them undocumented; they are required to regularize their status. Around 200,000 (10%) may be exempted (e.g., former officials, those with chronic illnesses) from leaving the country.
• Rising Returns and Deportations: Over 414,000 Afghans have returned since March, with 57% deported. Affected populations are highly vulnerable—53% women and children, 40% female-headed households, and 5.7% persons with disabilities.
• Protection Needs and Distress: Growing desperation reported, including self-harm and child abandonment. Top protection needs include documentation, legal aid, family reunification, and child protection; top material needs are food, cash, and water. See other updates here: 
• UNHCR: Key Statistics and Latest Updates
• UNHCR: Report on returns to Afghanistan
• UNHCR sees a sharp increase in Afghan returns in adverse circumstances from Iran to Afghanistan.

 

Pakistan:

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry issued a statement warning all undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country voluntarily, and said efforts to repatriate undocumented foreigners have been intensified, with more than 216,000 migrants having been returned to their home countries since 1 April.  

 

Pakistan will consider extending the deadline for 1.4 million Afghan refugees living legally in the country to return home, officials said on Monday.

 

Updates on refugees in Pakistan:

• IFRP Phase 2: Since 1 April 2025, 234,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan, with 28% deported. April deportations surpassed peak levels from Phase I in November 2023. Returns have slightly slowed in recent weeks, but continue.
• Demographics: Among assisted returnees, 78% are women and children, 2.3% have disabilities, and 31% are female-headed households. Main needs upon arrival include food, housing, and cash; top protection needs are documentation, legal aid, and child protection services.
• PR Card Uncertainty & Advocacy: PR cards are set to expire at the end of June, and advocacy is underway to push for an extension. An inter-ministerial meeting is expected soon, but the IFRP remains an active policy in the absence of cabinet action.
•  UNHCR: Key Statistics and Latest Updates

 

 

Indonesia:

Lars, APRRN’s network coordinator, attended the Roundtable and Reflection on Refugee Response and Coordination commemorating the 10-Year Anniversary of the Andaman Sea Crisis (3 June) at the National Research Body of Indonesia, BRIN. The roundtable was attended by members and partners from Indonesia, the Regional Support Office of the Bali Process, Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security, hosting the National Refugee Task Force. Based on a presentation of a new article on ‘Coordinating a route-based approach for Rohingya movements’, FMR, by ADSP and JRS Indonesia participants, discussed how to address the need for closer, inclusive national as well as regional collaboration.

 

On 4-5 June Lars met twenty Indonesian organisations as SUAKA convened the Indonesian NGO Forum on Refugee Policy Advocacy: exploring closer CSO collaboration during Emergency and Waiting Periods, agreeing collaboration under four pillars (Policy Advocacy (review of presidential regulation), Campaigns, Operational collaboration (like during the response to UNHCR funding cuts to financial support), as well as service provision. The Forum is a continuation of APRRN facilitated coordination and discussions in December 2024. Following the meeting, BRIN and JRS Indonesia will host a series of webinars in preparation for a submission to the review of the Presidential Regulation on Refugees. 

 

Thailand: 

Protect Women Domestic Violence Survivors, Refugees, and Human Rights Defenders. 

The Government of Thailand should commit to ensuring the protection of women domestic violence survivors, refugees, and human rights defenders, Fortify Rights said today. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) will consider Thailand’s record on women’s rights during a public hearing later today in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

Malaysia:

UNHCR: Key statistics and latest updates

 

End Torture, Arbitrary Arrest and Detention of Refugees.

Malaysian authorities must end the use of torture in their Immigration Detention Centers (IDCs) and stop their arbitrary arrest raids against migrants, Fortify Rights said today. Several refugees, arbitrarily arrested and detained as part of a new campaign of immigration raids, told Fortify Rights that they were beaten, forced to maintain stress positions or stripped naked for prolonged periods, humiliated, and denied basic necessities while in detention.

 

India:

Assam govt intensifies crackdown on illegals in the state, 88 Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators detected and deported from Cachar in a month. CM Sarma added that among those pushed back into Bangladesh, 59 are Bangladeshi refugees and 29 are Rohingya refugees. These illegal infiltrators were tracked and identified through special operations.

 

 

Does India’s alleged forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees breach international law? | In Focus podcastScan databases before giving IDs: Govt to states on illegal Bangladeshis, Rohingya crackdown.

 

Delhi Police deported 71 undocumented foreign nationals.

 

110 Indians, 64 Rohingyas among 1,638 pushed in by India in 49 days.

 

Supreme Court grants interim relief to Assam woman facing deportation. The woman was declared a foreigner by an Assam Foreigners' Tribunal. She approached the Supreme Court after the Gauhati High Court upheld the tribunal's decision.

 

India: Stop unlawful deportations and protect Rohingya refugees.

 

48 Rohingyas registered in India pushed into Bangladesh.

 

Modi’s refugee crackdown: The case of Mohammad Arfat. India’s treatment of Mohammad Arfat is not an isolated case; it reflects a broader history of abuse against Rohingya refugees and anti-Muslim sentiment by the Bharatiya Janata Party. 

 

Activists, Lawyers, Academics Condemn ‘Push Back’ of Persons to Bangladesh From Assam.

 

A ‘missing’ woman in Assam and her long struggle to prove Indian citizenship. For a decade, Manowara Bewa has been through a legal process heavily loaded against the marginalised. Her family now fears she has been forced out of India.

 

Why A Supreme Court Order Disallowing Arrest Warrants Against Abusive Spouses Makes Women More Vulnerable. 

 

Myanmar:  

Tin Mar Oo, May Thu, Zar Ti Nwe Nu Aung and Hilary Faxon, Voices Amidst Strife: Rohingya Perceptions of the Arakan Army, War in Rakhine, and justice in Myanmar, draws on interviews with 40 Rohingya currently in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the report systematically investigates how media depict these conflict dynamics and how members of the Rohingya community experience and perceive the Arakan Army’s struggle for territorial control, ongoing conflict in Rakhine, and the broader revolutionary landscape.

 

Myanmar military accused of starving Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Dozens of internally displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have died of starvation this year, according to a report released on 12 June by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). Nearly 150,000 Rohingya have been confined to internment camps in the state since 2012, relying on humanitarian assistance to survive. Tens of thousands are experiencing starvation as a result of a trade blockade and severe humanitarian access restrictions imposed by the ruling junta in response to escalating clashes with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine militia. The AA has also been accused of atrocities against Rohingya living under its control. The BROUK report builds on a 2024 one by the UN Development Programme, which documented “severe lack of income, hyperinflation, and significantly reduced domestic food production”, bringing Rakhine state’s economy to the brink of collapse and placing two million people at risk of starvation. The same day BROUK released its report, UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Julie Bishop warned the General Assembly that without ceasefires and improved aid access, Myanmar would remain “on a path to self-destruction”. More than 20 million people in Myanmar are in need of humanitarian assistance.

 

Other updates from Myanmar:

• Mass Drowning of Rohingya Refugees: A Tragedy Fueled by Arakan Army Brutality and Global Indifference

• Rohingya’s bumpy return journey to Myanmar

• U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Hearing, Burma in Transition: Next Steps to Advance Religious Freedom and Improve Conditions for Religious Victims,  27 February 2025:

1. Kachin Christian Leader, Written Testimony
2. Yasmin Ullah, Founder/Executive Director, Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network, Written Testimony 
3. Salai Za Uk Ling, Executive Director, Chin Human Rights Organization, Written Testimony 
4. Jessica Olney, Non-resident Advisor on Burma and Bangladesh, Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA), Written Testimony

 

 

Bangladesh: 

Digital mediation and technologies in forced displacement: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh The case study explores the Rohingya community's interactions with digital infrastructure during their journey and within refugee camps where they currently reside, highlighting the complications that may arise for stateless, forcibly displaced populations when they interface with digital technologies deployed by state, humanitaria,n and multilateral actors. 

 

Infrastructure Without Inclusion: What The Rohingya Camps Teach Us and Comfort Ero on the Rohingya Refugees: 30 Years of Conflict Prevention.

 

Other updates from Bangladesh:

• UNHCR: Key Statistics and latest updates

• UNICEF Bangladesh Humanitarian Situation Report No. 71 for 01 January - 31 March 2025 

• IRC Bangladesh Annual Report 2024

• UNHCR’s Biometric Standoff with the Rohingya

• Rohingya women coerced to use contraception in Bangladesh refugee camps

• Crisis in Cox’s Bazar: aid cuts push Rohingya to the brink
• Rohingya Refugee Schools Shuttered

• ADB okays $58.6m grant, $28.1m loan for Rohingyas, host communities. ADB country director said that they are pleased to support Bangladesh in strengthening the protection and resilience of displaced people from Myanmar.

• Funding cuts force new thinking for world’s largest refugee camp. The IFRC’s regional director lays out a roadmap for how to improve conditions for more than a million Rohingya refugees.

 

Australia:

The lost childhood: Khan Ali Safdary’s trauma

While Khan Ali Safdary was unable to pursue legal redress in Australia, national and international bodies have found that Australia violated his rights. In April, the UN Human Rights Committee ordered that Australia compensate and medically rehabilitate the Afghan refugee, who arrived as an unaccompanied child and endured more than seven years of detention across several states. Australia has 180 days to respond.

 

Detainee’s bid to halt Nauru deportation defeated in Federal Court: The Federal Court has ruled the Iranian man known as TCXM, who is fighting his deportation to Nauru, could be lawfully deported to Nauru under a paid agreement that enables serious offenders to be sent to the Pacific island nation.

 

Scott Morrison sought advice to obstruct Nauru asylum seekers from accessing abortions, documents reveal. Guardian Australia reported that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison overrode medical advice in the case of an asylum seeker in offshore detention trying to access an abortion, and that he had previously sought advice that would effectively prevent access to terminations entirely. Documents released under freedom of information laws show that in 2014, then-immigration minister Morrison sought advice to deny the transfer of women to an Australian hospital to access termination services before 20 weeks’ gestation.

 

We just sit here’: the broken men Australia’s offshore detention regime left behind in Papua New Guinea. Of more than 2,000 people Australia sent to Papua New Guinea, Samad Abdul is among the last there. Prevented from leaving PNG, he is one of 16 men housed at a suburban Port Moresby hostel; a similar number are housed elsewhere in the capital, physically unwell and mentally scarred. He spoke to Guardian Australia.

 

 

The government agrees to cover travel debts for refugees sponsored to Canada. After years of advocacy, the Department of Home Affairs has paid AUD264,000 to cover the travel loans paid or owed by refugees sponsored to Canada after years of detention on Nauru and Manus Island.

 

 

Other news updates from Australia:

• Australia’s role in preventing the next Andaman Sea refugee catastrophe

 

• The Taliban tried to stop Lida from employing Afghan women. She continues to do so covertly.

 

• Across The Seas tells the stories of five people who, in search of safety, freedom, education and a better life, have journeyed across the seas to make Australia home.

 

• The way the Australian government treated people seeking safe asylum in the 1970s and 1980s could be a better model than many of the practices it follows today.

 

• Riding 4000 km for refugees’ education.

 

• The Al-Araibi Affair: How Australia Fought a Politicized Red Notice. In an era of increasing global surveillance and cooperation between law enforcement agencies, the case of Hakeem al-Araibi stands as a striking example of how the INTERPOL Red Notice system can be weaponized—and how one country pushed back.

 

OTHER

OCHA Data Confirms Scale of US Aid Cuts: 79 Million Affected, Local NGOs Hit Hardest.

 

Trump’s travel ban is a ‘negotiating tactic’ with other countries.

 

Sri Lanka arrests returning Tamil refugee family, originally from Mullaithivu, who had fled the island during Sri Lanka’s economic collapse two years ago and were residing at the Mandapam Sri Lankan Tamils Rehabilitation Centre in Tamil Nadu, India. The arrests came just a day after another returning refugee, a 75-year-old man who had arrived at Palaly Airport with UNHCR assistance, was released by the Mallakam Magistrate’s Court following public pressure.

 

Taiwan Needs a Refugee Law to Ensure Legal Protection. Taiwan introduced a draft refugee law as early as 2005, but two decades later, no legislative progress has been made. 

 

In New Zealand, the government wants to electronically monitor some asylum seekers and migrants, and is preparing for mass arrivals of asylum seekers by plane, while also hoping to bring in new rules on dawn raids.

 

The German parliament approved the government’s plan to stop family reunifications for people with subsidiary protection status, who do not meet the criteria for refugee status under the Refugee Convention but face a risk of serious harm in their home country. The move potentially affects some 351,400 people, mostly from Syria, who are living in Germany with subsidiary protection status.

 

The government of Japan ordered to compensate overstayers who got sick in detention.

A court order has been issued to the government to pay ¥1.2 million ($8,300) in damages to two overstayers who got sick while they were held at a detention center.

 

UNHCR’s newly released Projected Global Resettlement Needs report estimates 2.5 million refugees globally will be in need of resettlement in 2026. The expected number has reduced from 2.9 million in 2025, despite continued growth in the number of refugees worldwide, because the fall of the Assad regime has enabled the voluntary return of Syrian refugees. UNHCR said the number of resettlements in 2025 is expected to be the lowest in two decades, even lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to US President Donald Trump halting the US resettlement program.

 

 

Reports & Publications

ASEAN Summit 46th 2025 - Key documents

KL Declaration - here

 

Taking Participation Seriously - why we need a legal framework for refugees to have a say. A global working group of refugee experts, academics, humanitarians and international lawyers has developed this draft declaration over the past 18 months, through a collaborative process driven by affected communities.

 

You can watch and share this brief video introduction on YouTube.

 

Modelling the Human Cost of Funding Cuts: Cox’s Bazar: The situation remains dire for the more than one million Rohingya refugees taking shelter in Bangladesh. With no end in sight to the human rights crisis in Myanmar, the number of refugees is predicted to grow. Without legal status, freedom of movement outside the camps, or access to sustainable livelihood opportunities, the Rohingya refugees are reliant on humanitarian assistance.

 

Global Detention Project: “These Small Victories are the Lifeblood of Change”: 2024 Annual Report

 

Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict. 

 

Armed conflict inflicted excruciating levels of violence on children in 2024, including data from Myanmar. FULL REPORT | SUMMARY OF THE ANNUAL REPORT.

 

Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI) launched the Asia-Pacific Community of Practice (CoP) Learning Call series, Dr. Tristan Harley, Senior Research Associate at the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law in the Faculty of Law & Justice, presented on a recent initiative to advance international law by establishing a right of refugees to participate in decisions that affect them.  

• Read the Public Consultation Draft of the Independent Declaration and provide feedback via email or an anonymous form.
• Register to attend one of the global virtual consultations hosted by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the Asia Pacific Network of Refugees.

• Baqir Bayani presented Asylum Access’s approach to achieving refugee leadership by positioning equitable partnership as a strategic pathway to advancing Meaningful Refugee Participation + the Equitable Partnership Position Paper. You can sign up to receive Asylum Access’s Equitable Partnership Toolkit. Learn more about the Refugee Resourcing Leadership Initiative and read the Localized Protection Position Paper.

 

 

Arash Bordbar  (former Chair of APRRN), Global South universities have much to teach on refugee inclusion, Institutions in low- and middle-income countries host most of the world’s refugees, despite having the least resources, but their efforts receive limited global recognition, The Each One Take One initiative, from UNHCR, aims to shift this dynamic, by building a global solidarity network that calls on every university, everywhere, to commit to welcoming at least one refugee student, while spotlighting and supporting those already leading the way. We cannot achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education) while more than 60 million forcibly displaced children and youth remain locked out of education.

See also: Global Task Force on Third Country Education Pathways (GTF) resources and guidance materials.

 

Seas as Humanitarian Spaces, held on 11 June during the UN Ocean Conference 2025 (UNOC3), focused on addressing challenges of humanitarian action aimed at saving the lives of refugees and migrants along sea routes, see the attached event summary and the related video recording.

 

Access UNHCR's toolkit to preventing and responding to misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.

 

 

UNHCR Asia Pacific, 'Ending Statelessness Together', publication that celebrates the work of activists and communities across the region, featuring the steps of progress made by countries like Turkmenistan, Thailand, and the Philippines, and the emergence of impacted-persons' led organizations in the region, and why it is non-negotiable to work without the meaningful participation of impacted persons.

 

Forced Displacement and Refugee Protection - ECOSOC Special Meeting, April 2025 session, speech by UNHCR HC, intervention by Rez Gardi (R-Seat), Jumpstart Refugee Talent (RLOs) 1:40:00, as well as from states relevant to our region included Afghanistan, Japan (2:05:00), South Korea (2:15:00), Australia (2:20:00), Iran, Myanmar, Rainbow Railroad, EU and the Holy See. 

Read the Call to Action.
 

R-SEAT produced an Explainer UNHCR Executive and Standing Committees. 

 

Launch event of FMR75 'Dangerous Journeys: Responding to missing migrants and refugees', now accessible on YouTube.

 

Please Do Not Be Part of Our Crisis: The impact of the U.S. foreign aid cuts on local organizations and communities  - see special reports from Myanmar (Burma) and on the Rohingya.

 

2025 Complementary Pathways Vision and Roadmap

Over the last 80 years, successive Australian governments have sustained a long-standing, life-saving bipartisan commitment to refugee resettlement. Now, Australia has established, is piloting, or has the potential to introduce additional migration pathways for refugees to complement ongoing resettlement. We have written the below brief together with a number of other organisations to provide a vision and steps for achieving the government’s goal and commitment to grow resettlement, community sponsorship and complementary pathways in Australia.

 

Exhibition Ek Khaale - Once Upon A Time 

The Rohingya - A Visual Restoration 

July 9-19, 2025 

Alliance Française Chiang Mai, Thailand

 

The first major exhibition of the project Ek Khaale - Once Upon A Time will open in two weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

The exhibition will run from July 9-19 at Alliance Française in Chiang Mai. 

The opening of this exhibition is a significant milestone for the project. The primary objective of the Chiang Mai exhibition is to challenge narratives and to share a perspective of the Rohingya that many have not been exposed to. Moreover, Ek Khaale and this exhibition also hope to facilitate in creation of a space of shared memory, identity, history and solidarity among other communities from Burma and beyond, especially at this important time.  Questions or Media inquiries, please contact: info@ekkhaale.org www.ekkhaale.org  

 

Beyond Burnout: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Refugee Support Workers

Join the online event on 30 July (6 am - 7:30 am WIT) for the second virtual International Refugee Integration and Settlement Exchange (IRISE), a global gathering of organisations, groups, and individuals involved in supporting refugees arriving through resettlement and other complementary pathways.

This IRISE Virtual Exchange explores the ways we think about and support the mental health and wellbeing of people (you!) who are working with and supporting refugees to settle in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

 

On 30 September 2025 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations will convene a High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar, see General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/278 and more information here   

 

Writeshop date: 26-29 January 2026 

Venue: Asia School of Business in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  

We will seek funding to cover the travel costs for invited presenters. The envisioned outcome for this workshop is an academic journal special issue.  

Contact: antje.missbach@uni-bielefeld.de or g.hoffstaedter@uq.edu.au  

About the writeshop:

Researching maritime refugees: How? Why?

The discussions throughout this writeshop will offer a deeper understanding of refugees’ decision-making and coping strategies in times when the sea is increasingly weaponised against refugees. Making refugee boats the prime site of this writeshop, we seek to explore the social relations and interactions of the passengers aboard refugee boats. The interplay of internal and external factors throughout the journeys can cause cohesion and mutual help but can also cause tensions and breakdown of solidarities. Based on existing case studies, we ask participants to  

• illustrate how refugees experience maritime passages and how they react to unforeseen challenges, risks and obstacles (pushbacks, deterrence); 
• showcase the evolving dynamics among passengers onboard and how they shape the socialites onboard, including pre-existing ties, gender, age, class, health and power; specific temporalities of the journey and materialities of the boats; and 
• thereby also reflect on the methodological and ethical concerns encountered when studying maritime refugees and boat journeys. 

 

Awards and Prizes

Melbourne Law School is announcing a funded Visiting Fellowship for the second half of 2026! 

We offer a Visiting Fellowship for up to two months with funding up to AU$6,000. This provides an opportunity for #statelessness researchers, practitioners, and educators to engage with the work of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the Melbourne Law School and to strengthen international collaborations. 

Applications close 30 November 2025.

For more information and how to apply, visit here.

 

Funding opportunities

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations is inviting youth-led organizations from eligible countries to apply for the 11th edition of its Youth Solidarity Fund (11th Edition), Topic: Peace & Conflict Resolution, Youth & Adolescents, Countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China,  India, Indonesia, Iran,  Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Nauru, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Viet Nam.  Deadline: 15 August  2025

 

Nominations are open for the UNESCO Prize for Global Citizenship Education to promote the visibility and recognition of projects and initiatives in the field of GCED from around the world.  Deadline: 1 September 2025

 

The Indian American Muslim Council is excited to invite nominations for its Human Rights and Religious Freedom Journalism Awards to recognize outstanding stories that explore the questions of human rights and the lived reality of religious minorities and marginalized communities in India.  Deadline: 25 July 2025

 

The Nobel Women’s Initiative invites applications for the Sister-to-Sister Young Feminist Leadership Program to bring together young feminist leaders – sisters - including from Afghanistan & Iran in an intensive virtual program which fosters crucial solidarity, support, sisterhood, and skills-building to better equip activists for the challenges ahead.  Deadline: 18 July 2025

 

The Green Hub has launched its Royal Enfield Conservation Grants for youth from indigenous communities, who are engaged in or would like to start community-based conservation projects in northeast India.  Deadline: 31 July 2025 

 

Apply for the Environmental and Publicly Beneficial Projects to promote volunteerism, foster environmental awareness, identify and support initiatives that enhance youth potential, improve the quality of life for the population, especially vulnerable groups, and introduce new tools for advancing community-driven projects.  Countries: India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan. Deadline: 1 August 2025

 

Nominations open for Young Women in Engineering Award, Deadline: 30 November 2025

 

The Lemonaid and ChariTea Foundation is seeking grant applications to support entrepreneurial and income-generating initiatives in regions currently excluded from fair access to the global economic system, including India & Sri Lanka. Deadline 20 July 2025

 

The UEFA Foundation for Children issues a call for projects to promote the fundamental rights of vulnerable children all over the world.  Deadline: 1 August 2025