SEA Junction, in collaboration with the IPSR In-House Seminar and the Mahidol Migration Centre (MMC), hosted a session of the Wednesday SEA Mobilities series titled “Policy Entrepreneurship and the Drafting of Refugee Law in a Non-Signatory Country: The Case of Thailand.” The seminar featured Dr. Bhanubhatra Jittiang of the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, with Dr. Pattraporn Chuenglertsiri of IPSR moderating the discussion. Dr. Bhanubhatra presented findings from his research published in the Journal of Refugee Studies, focusing on how Thailand—despite not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention—came to establish the National Screening Mechanism (NSM).
In his presentation, Dr. Bhanubhatra traced the origins of the NSM to Thailand’s commitments made at the 2016 Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, where the Thai government pledged to develop screening mechanisms and improve protections for forcibly displaced people. He argued that the NSM emerged through policy entrepreneurship led by officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations, who leveraged global momentum on refugee issues and framed the need for a formal mechanism to manage refugee situations in Thailand. He described these officials as strategically using windows of opportunity, such as the UN summit, to advance their agenda despite Thailand’s longstanding reluctance to adopt refugee legislation.
Dr. Bhanubhatra detailed the drafting process of the NSM, noting that while the MFA’s policy entrepreneurs secured initial political support, they faced strong resistance from other bureaucratic agencies during content negotiations. As a result, several terms—such as “refugee” and “asylum seeker”—were removed and replaced with alternative phrases like “protected persons,” reflecting ongoing concerns about pull factors and national security. He explained that civil society organizations were not part of the drafting committee, though they submitted their own draft and comments. The final NSM, approved in late 2019 and effective from June 2020, established screening procedures but did not constitute a full protection framework.
During the Q&A, participants asked about political dynamics, monitoring mechanisms, and how the NSM might apply to new arrivals from Myanmar. Dr. Bhanubhatra emphasized that the effectiveness of the NSM remains uncertain, as implementation is still at an early stage and key issues—such as protection guarantees, detention practices, and the treatment of children—are unresolved. He also highlighted the crucial role civil society could play in monitoring outcomes and contributing to future revisions of the mechanism.
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The full video of the event is embedded below for viewing, or click here to watch it on the SEA Junction YouTube channel.
