Comparative Immigration Law across the Mekong Subregion: Entry, Residence, and Enforcement Frameworks in Six States

Abstract

This article offers the first systematic comparison of the immigration law frameworks of the six Mekong subregion states China, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar with a focus on the entry, residence, and enforcement provisions that bear on irregular migration. Working from primary legislative texts, including the Lao PDR Law on Immigration and Foreigner Management (2015), China's Exit and Entry Administration Law (2012), Thailand's Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979, as amended), and the corresponding laws of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, it traces how differently these states characterize irregular migration in law, define the rights and obligations of foreigners, and organize enforcement authority. Those differences are not merely academic. They obstruct cross-border law enforcement cooperation, including mutual legal assistance and joint operations under the Lancang-Mekong Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Center (LMLECC). The article argues that the lack of a harmonized regional framework is itself a governance gap, one that weakens enforcement and leaves migrants' rights less protected, and it sets out a set of minimum common standards for harmonization grounded in international human rights obligations and the Palermo Protocols. The analysis draws throughout on the author's work as a Lieutenant in the Lao PDR Department of Immigration since 2018, which offers a close view of how these frameworks actually operate at border crossings and in foreigner management.

Keywords: comparative immigration law, Mekong subregion, irregular migration, Lao PDR, China, Thailand, immigration enforcement, legal harmonisation, LMLECC

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/154-04

Publication date: July 28^th 2026