KOICA-CIFAL Jeju Joint Fellowship Program:

Capacity Building Training to Improve Human Security in the Asia Pacific Region

25 August - 7 September 2019, Jeju, Republic of Korea – UNITAR CIFAL Jeju in collaboration with and sponsorship of KOICA organized the joint fellowship program: Capacity Building Training to Improve Human Security in the Asia Pacific Region. The Regional Support Office of the Bali Process (RSO) played a key role in sharing informative knowledge on human security with all the trainees during the 14-day workshop period.

The workshop brought together 18 representatives from the governmental sector of six different countries, which include: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

The workshop sessions were presented by resource persons with various backgrounds and expertise: Mr. Ali Reza from RSO of the Bali Process based in Bangkok, Ms. Rahnuma Khan from ILO Bangladesh, Ms. Aurore Marie Lebouchard of UNHCR Seoul, Ms. Pia Oberoi from OHCHR Bangkok, Mr. Seokjoon Moon and Ms. Hyejeong Yoo at IOM Seoul, François Hugo Vincent Kernin from UNHCR Regional Office for South-East Asia, Professor Byoungha Lee at University of Seoul, and Attorney Takgon Lee from Dongcheon Foundation. All sessions served as a capacity building platform to share valuable knowledge on irregular migration, international migration law, international refugee law, best practices and lessons learned in migration policies as well as other related topics.

Unlike the previous workshops organized by CIFAL Jeju, this workshop lasted 14 days, which made it possible to engage the trainees in deeper discussions over many complexities around irregular migration. The representatives from each country were given the opportunity to share the national policies and strategies to address irregular migration-driven issues derived from SWOT analysis during the country report session. All in all, the event was very informative and meaningful in terms of knowledge sharing, and all of the trainees were very engaging.

On the second week of the workshop, participants paid a visit to the Jeju Coast Guard Station, where they were able to learn more in depth about the operations and procedures taken in tackling illegal activities in regard to migration at sea. Additionally, participants were taken to the Jeju Immigration Office and the process of incoming migrants into the Republic of Korea was shared through brief presentation and Q&A session.

An action plan by country was developed through UNITAR’s CityShare Methodology along with indicators which can measure how successfully an action plan is implemented based on the SMART principle. The workshop participants were dedicated to planning their respective strategies and showed commitment to bring those strategies into active play in the foreseeable future.