Human rights

Invisible victims: How counter-trafficking efforts leave people with disability behind
Invisible victims: How counter-trafficking efforts leave people with disability behind
Dao (not her real name) came to Thailand from Laos when she was 17. With her hearing impairment, she had struggled to find work in Laos. Dao’s aunt told her that she could find…
A ring-fence around the Rohingya can’t last – Australia’s policy needs to change
A ring-fence around the Rohingya can’t last – Australia’s policy needs to change
Last year, I wrote in The Interpreter about the nightmare scenario unfolding for the Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where dwindling aid, a dependent population,…
In defence of Aung San Suu Kyi
In defence of Aung San Suu Kyi
On 18 October 2023, the Brighton and Hove City Council in the United Kingdom revoked the Freedom of the City awarded to Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi in 2011. Their special…
Dying to work abroad: Why Nepalese migrants are fighting other people’s wars
Dying to work abroad: Why Nepalese migrants are fighting other people’s wars
Last month, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, Nepal appealed to Russia “not to recruit Nepalese nationals into the country’s army and to help repatriate those…
By default not design: the end of the asylum consensus
By default not design: the end of the asylum consensus
During a summer break, The Interpreter will feature selected articles each day from throughout the past year. Normal publishing will resume 15 January, 2024. This article first…
Why do we travel to unsettling places?
Why do we travel to unsettling places?
During a summer break, The Interpreter will feature selected articles each day from throughout the past year. Normal publishing will resume 15 January, 2024. This article first…
Manila’s killing fields: Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on the poor
Manila’s killing fields: Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on the poor
Book review: Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder In My Country by Patricia Evangelista (Penguin Random House, 2023) “When I become president, when I take my oath of…
Human trafficking: Harnessing technology to help those most vulnerable
Human trafficking: Harnessing technology to help those most vulnerable
If you are a person who has been trafficked, a lot of bad things will have happened to you by the time you are rescued or escape. However, for hundreds of thousands of trafficked…
Australia’s chance to show global leadership on Rohingya displacement
Australia’s chance to show global leadership on Rohingya displacement
The Rohingya – the world’s largest stateless population – have faced decades of systematic persecution, including mass displacement following targeted violence in Rakhine State in…
Online scams in Southeast Asia create double victims: those targeted and those forced to carry them out
Online scams in Southeast Asia create double victims: those targeted and those forced to carry them out
The job ads always sound too good to be true. Open and well-paid positions at a popular casino. Lodgings, benefits and other perks provided. But it all ends up quite the…