On 26 October 2022, the Alternatives to Detention Thematic Workstream of the Regional UN Network on Migration for Asia and the Pacific held the launch event of “Promoting Alternatives to Immigration Detention in the Asia Pacific Region” in Bangkok, Thailand. This event was to disseminate the report “Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention in the Asia-Pacific Region” authored by the International Detention Coalition with the support of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as a publication of the Workstream and the Alternatives to Detention Working Group of the UN Network on Migration and to discuss the way forward for promoting alternatives to immigration detention in the region. Representatives from Thailand, the Regional UN Network, the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) and civil society including migrant leaders with lived experiences shared their work and recommendations with the participants.

On the following day, the Alternatives to Detention Thematic Workstream invited representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) from the Asia Pacific region to review the progress and discuss further steps needed to implement the GCM Objective 13 in the region, namely from Australia, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (Hong Kong SAR), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand to a one-day meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting provided a safe space for the participants to learn from peers and to discuss tools and strategies to end immigration detention and promote human rights-based alternatives in the region.