Vol. 12 No. 1 (2025): Protecting People Crossing Border in The Context of International Migration Law and International Refugees Law"

Over the past several decades, the movement of people across international borders has become increasingly common due to war, political persecution, climate change and disparities in wealth and income. These complex dynamics have made it difficult to differentiate between voluntary and compelled migration, blurring the historically clear legal distinction between migrants and refugees. There are separate regime of norms in international migration law and international refugee law, the need for a common rights-based framework on cross-border protection is, however, evident more than ever before. This edition considers the interaction between these two legal regimes for the protection of people in transit, in particular people who, while not disqualified from claiming refugee status, are in need of international protection.

Through doctrinal and comparative analysis, this article explores how the rights and vulnerabilities of those who cross borders are dealt with in key legal instruments, notably the 1951 Refugee Convention and it’s 1967 Protocol along with regional human rights regimes and soft law. It calls for a more integrated and adaptable legal response that transcends rigid categorizations, ensuring that protection responsibilities are not thwarted by jurisdictional or definitional limitations in international law.

For these issues we selected several articles from Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan; general articles from Indonesia and Jordan; and also book review from Singapore.