The Symposium

After lots of preparations and a fair amount of stress Jess, Plaii, P Eid and I (Chiang Mai based secretariat) were off to Bangkok for the symposium. We left on Sunday the 25^th of February and arrived at hotel Ibis around five in the afternoon. The hotel was lovely, situated right by the river with a great pool and nice meeting room arrangements. On Sunday we only did a few preparations such as printing registration forms and making sure that everything was ready for the next day. On Monday, the whole day consisted of internal MMN meetings discussing how the week would pan out and who was to do what. One of my main tasks was to take pictures during the symposium, for later documentation. I was also placed at the registration desk every morning, making sure that the participants signed in, that they received the symposium packs and whatever information they needed. 

The title of the symposium was “Mekong Symposium on Migration Migrants from the Mekong Neighbourhood Living Together Seeking Effective Responses to Enable Integration and Social Cohesion.” So the theme was about migrants and local people living together rather than alongside each other. The Mekong Migration Network brought together 72 representatives of governments, academic institutions, INGOs, NGOs and migrant groups from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar/Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan province of China, to share their perspectives on how migrants and host communities can live together. The purpose of the symposium was for the participants to jointly developed strategies and recommendations to enhance social cohesion in the Mekong region and enable migrant and host communities to live together peacefully and in harmony.

Seeing as I was taking most of the photos I got to sit in on all the plenaries and see most of the resource persons speak. Even though discussion among governments and civil society concerning labour migration has increased, there is still a lack of discussion about social cohesion and living together in the Mekong, and more broadly in ASEAN. It was therefore incredibly insightful to hear people from such different backgrounds, talk and discuss about living together in the Mekong.  Some of the speakers were Ms. Jackie Pollock from MAP Foundation; Ms. Puja Kapai, associate professor from the University of Hong Kong; Mr. Precha Soravisute from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Royal Government of Thailand; Mr. Luca Pierantoni from the Delegation of the European Union to Thailand; H.E. U Myint Thein, the Deputy Minister from the Ministry of Labour, Government of Republic of the Union of Myanmar; H.E. Ms. Chou Bun Eng, Secretary of State, Ministry of Interior, Royal Government of Cambodia and Mr Jai Sak, migrants representative. 

It was also very interesting to see from the inside how such an event is organised, how it works and what comes out of it. At the end of the Symposium there was a press conference where the outcome and recommendations developed during the three day event were presented. The recommendations were many, targeted at community, national and regional actors, so the presence of media, government officials, and lots of civil society organisations was therefore key when adopting and presenting the recommendations.

So it is safe to say that the week in Bangkok has taught me so much and given me and experience I will never forget. Because MMN is a small organisation they do not have the opportunity to host such events very often, the timing of my placement with MMN has therefore been perfect. In the week to come I will be working on the donor report for the Symposium, which I am very excited for.

H. E. Ms. Chou Bun Eng

H. E. Ms. Chou Bun Eng

Symposium Participants from Burma, with Mr. Precha Sorivasute  (second from the left)

Ms. Anna Olsen (ILO) and H.E. Ms. Chou Bun Eng

Mr Mom Sokchar and Mr. Michael Hewitt

Ms. Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet

The week was very intereting, but also tiering

Ms. Ninpaseuth Xayaphonesy From Lao Women's Union

Mr. Jai Sak, migrants representative

Mr. Mom Sokchar and Ms. Reiko Harima (MMN Regional Coordinator)

H. E. U Myint Thein, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Myanmar

Drinks reception after the press conference

The meeting room