Arrest, detain, deport: how securitisation marginalises migrant workers in Thailand

Abstract

The proposed research will investigate the securitisation of irregular migration in Southeast Asia, exemplified via a case study of Thailand. The research will seek to answer the question – is irregular migration framed as a security threat in the case of Thailand? The thesis will take a particular effort to employ a human rights perspective, in order to understand the impacts of securitisation to the most vulnerable stakeholder – migrant workers residing in Thailand. Within the framework of Non-Traditional Security studies, the research will examine the role of the Thailand’s military-led National Council for Peace and Order as a securitising actor and the impacts of its threat management tactics. The role of migrant workers in the Thai economy will be central to the research and how the NCPO’s aggressive anti-trafficking measures exacerbates migrants’ insecurities. The research concludes that the NCPO, in the interest of national security, has securitised the issue of irregular migration – at the expense of the individual and human security of its migrant workers.