Articles

A Looming Catastrophe: COVID-19, Urban Refugees, and the Right to Health in Thailand

Daron, AFR-SG's Legal Research Coordinator and also Asylum Access Thailand's RSD Team Lead expounds on the situation for approximately 5,000 urban refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, in light of COVID-19.

Pre-COVID, refugees in Thailand “still face obstacles in accessing basic health care services”. In current times, refugees face further uncertainty, such as the fear of being arrested when visiting hospitals...

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Perspectives from Dr Robin Bush on Refugees, Religion & Indonesia

In 2020, just a few months shy of the Covid-19 pandemic, Toh Ee Ming, AFR-SG's volunteer spoke to Dr Robin Bush, internationally recognized scholar of Indonesian politics and Islam in Indonesia.

She reflects on the power of religious groups in Indonesia and the "tremendous potential" they have in supporting the refugee cause, as they are associated with philanthropy and volunteerism.

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A Decade of Advocacy: Refugees, Displacement, and Public Understanding in Singapore

After a decade of commemorating World Refugee Day, Mathilda, AFR-SG's Founder spoke to Picture Perfect Project to discuss refugee awareness, public understanding, and the challenge of bridging the distance between seeing and truly understanding.

One recurring theme emerged: the challenge is not simply encouraging sympathy for refugees, but creating the conditions for more informed, nuanced, and sustained conversations about forced displacement itself.

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Safehaven Singapore
(originally published on Singapore Unbound)

In conjunction with World Refugee Day in 2020, Beth Lee, AFR-SG's volunteer spoke to Ms Lea Tran, a former Hoa Vietnamese refugee who was 16 years old when she and her family landed in Singapore, after fleeing the IndoChina war in Vietnam and was being pushed out to sea by Malaysia due to the overcrowded refugee camps.

Singapore once hosted Vietnamese "boat people" from 1977 to 1996 at Hawkin's Road Camp in Sembawang.

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