Thank you for the question.
As I touched on just at the end of my remarks, the problem is that there's no process for doing that. Neither India nor Thailand—nor Malaysia or Indonesia, for that matter—is a signatory to the refugee convention. None of those countries has implemented refugee status determination procedures.
At best, what can happen in a country like Thailand, for example, is that the refugee claimants can approach the UNHCR to register. They're given a form of documentation that is supposed to serve as evidence to the Thai authorities that they've registered with the UNHCR and that they're in process for the possibility of resettlement. In the meantime, they're at risk of being rounded up, arrested, detained, and sent back to Sri Lanka by Thai authorities. It's a very precarious life.
Those who are lucky enough to be identified for resettlement will wait years. Imagine this if you are a family with young children. You fled human rights violations in your country of origin—in this case, we're talking about Sri Lanka—you came to Thailand hoping for a solution, and you are told that you have no right to stay in Thailand, to integrate, to work, and to build a life. Yes, you can join the queue, you are told, but your child will probably be of university age by the time he's identified for resettlement to Canada. What kind of life is that?
Essentially, it's a holding pattern. At worst, it's detention. At best, it's a marginalized existence, with no right to participate in a community in which you're situated.
So regional solutions, yes, and I am absolutely an advocate for them. But that means countries getting together and coming up with genuine solutions for the global refugee situation, not simply saying that those refugees should stay in the region where they came from when there's no procedure set up to deal with them.