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Nikolas Feith Tan is a PhD Fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights and Aarhus University in international refugee law. His doctorate looks at state cooperation in the field of migration control. An Australian lawyer admitted to practice, Nikolas is a former officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This essay considers three issues triggered by the pushbacks of boats carrying Rohingya and Bangladeshi asylum seekers and migrants in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in May 2015. Firstly, whether the actions of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia amounted to refoulement. Second, whether these states are bound by the non-refoulement norm. Finally, whether there exists a customary norm of non-refoulement in Southeast Asia.
