Contagious viral diseases had affected the Asian continent in the past, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the region. Disrupted travel and business connections have highlighted the vulnerability of global health governance and international labour migration in the region. The region lacked a clear and effective leadership in the pandemic, as the WHO’s role as a global health organisation came under increasing pressure and international public health has become an arena of heavy contestation between global powers. Consequently, countries in the region have dealt with COVID-19 differently, even though personal health security has become a transnational issue in a region that relies heavily on migrant workers. Current policies were not designed with pandemics of this scale in mind, and their defects are showing. The conference, ‘Labour Mobility and Global Health Governance in Asia’, organised with the Leiden Asia Centre (LAC) and the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka School of International Public Policy (IRC), discussed all these topics and took place on Thursday, 4 November 2021 from 17:00 – 19:30 (JST).

You can find the webinar recording below: