The 2025 Kaldor Centre Conference shared principled insights on how to sustain refugee protection amid funding crises, misinformation and polarisation.
Policymakers, experts, scholars and community leaders - including people who were forced to flee their homelands - gathered at UNSW Sydney this week to address the future of refugee protection.
Australia is preparing to welcome its one millionth refugee since World War II - a milestone that highlights the profound contribution refugees have made to the nation. Yet refugee protection is under intense pressure around the world.
Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law Professor Daniel Ghezelbash said we were witnessing a pivotal time for refugee policy. "Global displacement has reached record highs, with more than 122 million people forced from their homes, including over 31 million refugees," he said.
"Devastating conflicts are raging in so many parts of the world. Some are receiving prominent coverage, some are neglected, all are utterly tragic. At the same time, division is deepening, funding is contracting and populist rhetoric is surging - shrinking the space for humane, coordinated responses just when they are needed most."
Charting a fair path forward for refugees
Across several keynote speeches and panel discussions, the 2025 Kaldor Centre Conference 'Building Bridges: Advancing Refugee Protection in a Divided World' explored ways to maintain support for refugees and asylum seekers.
Community Independents Project ambassador and former Independent federal MP Kylea Tink said society needed to promote open, honest conversations to heal divisions and combat mass misinformation.
"You only need to look at the streets of Melbourne last week to see that there is definitely sentiment in this country to stop immigration," she said.
"I grew up in a time without social media, in a rural community where it didn't matter if you were the doctor's daughter or the Vietnamese refugee child - you all did the same things because you wanted your community to thrive.
"What we need is for our communities to say no, we stand together … We are reaching a point with AI-driven misinformation where people need to find ways to amplify positive stories."
Deputy Executive Director of Community Sponsorship Hub and former refugee Basma Alawee highlighted the need for personal connections. "Many people have never met a refugee, so their understanding is shaped by headlines, social media or political narratives," she said.
"But research over time has confirmed what I experienced firsthand - direct relationships are the biggest predictor of openness. People who know a refugee are twice as likely to support refugee resettlement."
Direct relationships are the biggest predictor of openness. People who know a refugee are twice as likely to support refugee resettlement.
Why refugee voices matter in policymaking
Speakers also discussed how to bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to refugee participation, a key area of research at the Kaldor Centre .
Senior Director for Advocacy Strategy at Refugees International Mohammed Naeem said we were experiencing an era where policymaking is shaped by fear and misinformation that pushes people toward extreme views.
"We are reckoning with a crisis of truth and trust," he said. "The next evolution of the system won't come from Canberra, New York, Geneva or Washington alone. It will come from communities like the more than 170 refugee welcome zones across Australia."
Mohammed arrived in the US as a young child after fleeing Afghanistan. Drawing on his own refugee journey and his role in shaping policy, he called for refugees to be central participants in decisions affecting their lives.
"We are gifted communities who have faced that trial, who have seen those bombs, who have travelled those lands. Refugees have a level of strategic foresight that can iron out the real knots that policymaking has produced."
Prof. Ghezelbash also emphasised the value of global migration. "Refugees bring skills, resilience, knowledge and enterprise that enrich societies - proof that when protection is upheld, everyone gains," he said.
"Building bridges requires recognising and elevating refugee expertise and leadership. People with lived experience of displacement understand the problems within our systems - and the solutions needed to overcome them."
Defending human rights and common values
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Hugh de Kretser said while Australia had gained so much from refugees, our actions towards them continued to be hardline.
"Australia's policies remain amongst the harshest in the world," he said. "Instead of protecting people who come to our shores by boat, successive Australian governments have harmed them - intercepting them, turning them back, detaining those that do reach Australia and transferring them to remote offshore islands."
He urged the Australian government to adopt four measures, which would redirect political, financial and diplomatic resources towards a better approach.
"Firstly, engaging with regional countries like Indonesia and Malaysia to improve conditions and legal protections for people seeking asylum," he said. "Secondly, defer the billions of dollars we spend on deterrence measures to increase funding to UNHCR and refugee-led organisations.
"Thirdly, we should increase the number of refugees we take from the UN resettlement pool.
"And finally, we should urge other nations with the capacity to do so to follow our lead, instead of inspiring others to adopt harsh deterrence measures that breach people's rights."
