Tual Sawn Khai is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. Furthermore, he is a Research Scholar with the Consortium for Social Change, Well-being, and Social Policy Studies, a collaborative initiative between Lingnan University’s Institute of Policy Studies and Hang Seng University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Public Policy. Additionally, he is a Research Affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London.

 

Before his role at PolyU, he served as an RGC Postdoctoral Fellow at Lingnan University and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and a Visiting PhD Research Fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in Malaysia. His research focuses on Myanmar affairs, forced migration, refugees, internally displaced persons, conflicts, humanitarian aid, statelessness, climate change, and the social determinants of health and well-being.

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He has authored two books: "Irregular Migration in Southeast Asia: Contemporary Barriers to Regularization and Healthcare" (Routledge) and "Japan’s Humanitarian Aid toward Myanmar after the 2021 Coup: Exploring Four Channels amid the Weaponization of Assistance" (Springer Briefs in International Relations). His scholarly contributions have been published in several esteemed journals, including the Journal of Migration and Health, Frontiers in Public Health, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Clinical Psychology in Europe, Archives of Public Health, Discover Public Health, International Journal of Social Welfare, Journal of Burma Studies, and Vaccine: X, among others. Additionally, he has provided research consulting services to various organizations, including think tanks, nonprofit entities, and international institutions in Southeast Asia.