ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 begins with an outline of the migration and refugee crisis of 2015 in the EU and how the crisis acted as a catalyst for institutional reform and integration, even though it challenged the EU’s political and territorial integrity considerably. The chapter then discusses the Rohingya boat people crisis of May 2015 to assess the regional institutional developments of ASEAN in the face of illegal migration and TIP crises. The discussion confirms that the May Rohingya boat people crisis has indeed triggered enhanced ASEAN regional and sub-regional dialogue and cooperation efforts to fight human trafficking and transnational crime. Overall, with a view to ASEAN–EU inter-regionalism on migration and refugee matters specifically, the crisis-induced regional institutional developments in the respective regions suggest that regional capacity to address migration and refugee issues has expanded and deepened and is, therefore, allowing enhanced ASEAN–EU interaction on these topics.
