How do racism and displacement intersect, and is the protection regime part of the problem or the solution? Hear E Tendayi Achiume (UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia & Related Intolerance)and Nyadol Nyuon(Lawyer, community advocate and writer)in conversation at the closing session of the Kaldor Centre Conference 2020, held on 20 November 2020. Hosted by Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and Kaldor Centre Director.

On racism and refugees: A conversation with E Tendayi Achiume and Nyadol Nyuon

Join experts from around the globe to discuss emerging and future regional challenges to refugee protection. This panel session was recorded on 18 November at the Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2020.

Panel featuring:  Maria Bances del Rey (UNHCR Americas Bureau), 
Cathryn Costello (Hertie School), Oroub El-Abed (Centre for Lebanese Studies), Ottilia Anna Maunganidze (Institute for Security Studies), Vitit Muntarbhorn (Chulalongkorn University), Chair: Madeline Gleeson (Kaldor Centre)

Protection 360: Surveying refugee challenges across the regions

A Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2021 key panel session held on 21 October 2021. Sometimes the impacts of disasters and climate change mean that whole areas may become unsafe to live in. Communities may be faced with the prospect of relocation. But who decides – to move at all, and if so, where? Planned relocations traverse a complicated cultural, legal and land title landscape. What does a ‘successful’ planned relocation look like? Hear from Erica Bower, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; Daniel Fitzpatrick, Faculty of Law, Monash University; Salote Soqo, Climate Justice & Crisis Response, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; Merewalesi Yee, University of Queensland; and chaired by Elizabeth Ferris, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University

Should I stay or should I go? Planned relocations

Students who have experienced displacement share their experience of university life and tips on how others can show support and solidarity. This free Diversity Fest 2022 event at UNSW Sydney was hosted by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law on 27 October 2022.

The Power To Welcome: Supporting Refugee Students in our Midst

Kaldor Centre Director, Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, delivers the opening keynote address entitled, 'Turning points in international protection: onwards and upwards, or u-turns and roundabouts?' at the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference held on 15 November 2022 and reflects on the major disruptive events we have faced in recent times, and their implications for the future of refugee protection.

Kaldor Centre Conference 2022, opening address by Kaldor Centre Director, Jane McAdam AO

Recording from the opening panel event at the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 15 November 2022.

How has COVID-19 transformed access to protection, assistance and the lives of those already living in precarious situations – for better and for worse?

Join Adrian Edwards (UNHCR Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific); Roshni Shanker (Migration and Asylum Project); Gillian Triggs (UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection); Pascal Zigashane (Action pour le Progrés); and Chair: Daniel Ghezelbash (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

COVID-19’s lasting effects on refugee protection

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 16 November 2022. 

What practical actions can advance the meaningful participation of refugees in representative decision-making?

Join Mustafa Alio (R-SEAT); Sana Ali Mustafa (Asylum Access); Najeeba Wazefadost (Asia Pacific Network of Refugees); Fiona Whiteridge (Refugee and Migrant Services, Immigration New Zealand); and Chair: Tristan Harley (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law).

Catalysing meaningful refugee participation: Next steps and ongoing challenges

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 16 November 2022. 

Does the Global North’s response to people fleeing Ukraine signal a renewed commitment to international protection, or a turn towards more geographically proximate and time-bound responses?

Join Arif Hussein (Refugee Advice and Casework Service); Yulia Ioffe, (University College London); Catherine Woollard (European Council on Refugees and Exiles); and Chair: Jane McAdam (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

Is Ukraine a turning point for people seeking safety?

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 17 November 2022.
How can we create a more constructive public conversation about refugees?

Join Barat Ali Batoor (Photojournalist); Tom Hashemi (Cast from Clay); Amanda Ripley (Journalist and author); and Chair: Lauren Martin (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

A better conversation: Changing the public discourse about refugees

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 17 November 2022.
As asylum processes are shifted offshore, how can governments be held accountable for the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers beyond their borders?

Join Behrouz Boochani (Author and journalist); Itamar Mann (University of Haifa); Anna Talbot (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law); Elahe Zivardar (Director, 'Searching for Aramsayesh Gah'); and Chair: Riona Moodley (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law).

Secrecy somewhere else: Accountability for the ‘externalised’ treatment of refugees

UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) co-hosted a discussion held on 9 February 2023 with Behrouz Boochani, as he concluded his first visit to Australia. The discussion explored Behrouz’s complicated path to freedom, and the role of courage, collaboration and creativity in challenging a dehumanising asylum system.

The first part of the panel featured Madeline Gleeson (Kaldor Centre) and Zaki Haidari (Amnesty International) with Behrouz’s translator and collaborator, Moones Mansoubi, and Guardian Australia’s Ben Doherty.

In the second part of the discussion, Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian join Moones Mansoubi and Ben Doherty for a discussion about the new book, Freedom, Only Freedom (Bloomsbury 2022), and the liberating power of writing, creative relationships and resistance. The panel is hosted by RACS Director Sarah Dale and Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO.

Creative resistance: Behrouz Boochani and friends on fighting a dehumanising system

Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO talks to Julia Morris about her new book, 'Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru' on 23 February 2023. This book provides an extraordinary glimpse into Nauru’s offshore processing arrangement and its impact on islanders, workforces, and migrant populations. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Nauru, Australia, and Geneva, as well as the archives of the British Phosphate Commission, Julia Morris charts the country’s colonial connection to phosphate through to a new industrial sector in asylum. She explores how this extractive industry is peopled by an ever-shifting cast of refugee lawyers, social workers, clinicians, policy makers, and academics globally and how the very structures of Nauru’s colonial phosphate industry, and the legacy of the ‘phosphateer’ era, made it easy for a new human extractive sector to take root on the island.

The book also highlights the institutional fabric, discourses, and rhetoric that inform the governance of migration around the world. Morris illuminates how refugee rights activism and #RefugeesWelcome-style movements are caught up in the hardening of border enforcement operations worldwide, calling for freedom of movement that goes beyond adjudicating hierarchies of suffering.

Julia Morris is Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Jane McAdam AO is Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney.

Asylum and Extraction in The Republic of Nauru

Forced to flee Bhutan as a refugee, Om Dhungel is today an award-winning community leader in Western Sydney and a debut author, whose new book is described by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as simply ‘a great Australian story’. 

This special panel event was held on 18 May 2023, with Om Dhungel and CEO of Settlement Services International (SSI) Violet Roumeliotis AM, in conversation exploring what we all can learn – about refugee leadership, wellbeing, and belonging – from this story of grit and hope. Moderated by Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO, the event celebrated the publication of 'Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing everything and finding Australia' (NewSouth, 2023) by Om Dhungel with James Button.

Presented in partnership with New South Books, Settlement Services International, Community Migrant Resources Centre, SydWest Multicultural Services and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

Bhutan to Blacktown - And Beyond: A Conversation About Refugee Leadership in Australia

In June 2023, as the last refugee in Nauru was flown back to Australia, the United Kingdom's attempts to introduce an Australian-style offshore processing policy were dealt a blow in the UK courts. The UK had tried to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims for protection processed there. The British policy reflects that which Australia has operated since 2012, sending people who came by boat seeking safety to Nauru and Papua New Guinea to have their asylum claims processed. But on the 29th of June this year, the England and Wales Court of Appeal ruled that Rwanda was not a safe third country, effectively ending for now, the Government's offshore processing plans. 

To explain this policy and help us understand the implications of the recent court judgment, Kaldor Centre Senior Research Fellow Madeline Gleeson speaks with Dr. Natalie Hodgson, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Nottingham, and head of the Forced Migration Unit in the university's Human Rights Law Centre.

Courts, Channel crossings and the Rwanda plan: A conversation about UK asylum policy

Join leading researchers on climate mobility in Africa as they discuss they launch of the new Climate Mobility Africa Insights publication series. Developed and published by the Climate Mobility Africa Research Network (CMARN), with the generous support of Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Insights aims to advance evidence-based law and policy responses to climate mobility in Africa. Join researchers from fields such as disaster risk reduction, transhumance, sexual and gender-based violence and human rights, as they share insights into current challenges and future law and policy options. 

Insights policy briefs and fact sheets provide a ‘go to’ resource for African governments, policy makers and other researchers working to address climate mobility in Africa. The Insights series also provides training and editorial support to authors who wish to publish their research, advancing diversity and representation within policy dialogue regarding climate mobility in Africa and  beyond.  https://www.cmarnetwork.com/insightsen

Speakers:
•	Professor Ademola Oluborode Jegede is a Professor of Law at the School of Law, University of Venda, South Africa
•	Dr Nicodemus Nyandiko is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Disaster Management and Sustainable Development at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), Kenya
•	Dr Oluwatoyin Adejonwo is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos and a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria

Regional responses to climate mobility: launch of Climate Mobility Africa 'Insights'

Rejoignez des chercheurs de premier plan sur la mobilité climatique en Afrique alors qu’ils discutent du lancement de la nouvelle série de publications Climate Mobility Africa Insights. Développé et publié par le Climate Mobility Africa Research Network (CMARN), avec le généreux soutien de la Robert Bosch Stiftung et du Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Insights vise à faire progresser les réponses juridiques et politiques fondées sur des données probantes à la mobilité climatique en Afrique. Rejoignez des chercheurs de domaines tels que la réduction des risques de catastrophe, la transhumance, la violence sexuelle et fondée sur le genre et les droits de la personne, alors qu’ils partagent leurs points de vue sur les défis actuels et les options futures en matière de lois et de politiques.

Les notes d’orientation et les fiches d’information d’Insights constituent une ressource incontournable pour les gouvernements africains, les décideurs et les autres chercheurs travaillant sur la mobilité climatique en Afrique. La série Insights offre également une formation et un soutien éditorial aux auteurs qui souhaitent publier leurs recherches, faisant progresser la diversité et la représentation dans le dialogue politique sur la mobilité climatique en Afrique et au-delà.  https://www.cmarnetwork.com/insightsfr

Intervenants: 

-	Dr Rose Auma est maître de conférences à l’Université des sciences et technologies Masinde Muliro (MMUST), Kenya, et administratrice du Réseau de recherche sur la mobilité climatique en Afrique (CMARN)

-	 Dr Cheikh Tidiane Wade est géographe à l’Université Assane Seck, Sénégal 

-	Christina Daskiewicz est chargée de projet à la Division de la migration, de l’environnement, du changement climatique et de la réduction des risques de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM)

Réponses régionales à la mobilité climatique : lancement de Climate Mobility Africa Insights

As Shuja Jamal walked to the Presidential Palace in Kabul for work at 8.30am on 15 August 2021, ‘it was clear that this is unlike any other day … something in the air in the city ... You can actually feel it.’ Shuja is the former director-general for international relations for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, and his new book is 'The Decline and Fall of Republican Afghanistan', co-authored with William Maley. He takes us back to the day the Taliban took over.

Ahmad Shuja Jamal speaks with the Kaldor Centre's Lauren Martin.

The day the Taliban overtook Kabul: An interview with Ahmad Shuja Jamal

As the number of displaced people around the world continues to increase, the gap between the needs and availability of durable solutions grows wider. Resettlement plays an important role in providing solutions, and there is an increasing recognition of the potential role of complementary pathways, which can provide access to safety through other migration channels. These include labour mobility, education pathways, and community sponsorship programs. What is the current state of play in resettlement and complementary pathways? What potential do they hold to provide solutions to a greater number of displaced people?

On 27 February 2024, a panel of international experts provided an update on current developments from around the world, in an event jointly hosted by the Refugee Council of Australia and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. 

This year, Australia was the chair of the Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways (CRCP), the most important multilateral forum for UNHCR, States, NGOs, private sector representatives, academics and refugees to discuss resettlement and complementary pathways. International delegates gathered in Sydney as part of these consultations, and this free public event provided an opportunity to hear from some of these global experts.

Moderated by:

Basma Alawee, Deputy Executive Director of the Community Sponsorship Hub, USA

Speakers included:

Jackie Keegan, Head of Resettlement and Complementary Pathways Service, UNHCR

Colm O'Gorman, Global Director, Community Engagement, Pathways International

Mohammad Naeem, Deputy Director, Strategy and Partnerships, American Immigration Council and a member of the CRCP Refugee Advisory Group

Global perspectives on resettlement and complementary pathways

NZYQ v Minister for Immigration (NZYQ) changed the landscape for immigration detainees in Australia. It led to the release of at least 149 people from indefinite immigration detention where there was no real prospect of removing them from Australia in the 'reasonably foreseeable future’. It also led to the rapid passage of new legislative provisions that could be used to restrict the freedom of those released. Under this legislation, the Commonwealth can seek Community Safety Orders if those released are considered to pose an ‘unacceptable risk of seriously harming the community by committing a serious violent or sexual offence’, allowing re-detention or the imposition of other restrictive conditions. 

Continuing detention orders have been accepted by the High Court of Australia as valid for people convicted of serious violent, sex or terrorism crimes in Australia. Community Safety Orders, however, differ from continuing detention orders in important ways, and they have not yet been tested in Australian courts. 

This fully subscribed event was held on 3 April 2024, and sought to examine Community Safety Orders in detail, explaining what they are and what you should do if the Commonwealth seeks to issue one to your client. It also sought to examine the broader ramifications of NZYQ, including the conditions that people are being released under.

Speakers included:

Scientia Professor George Williams, UNSW Law, leading Australian constitutional scholar, who can advise on the possible constitutional ramifications of NZYQ and follow up cases.
 
Paul Coady, NSW Public Defender, who has ample experience responding to continuing detention orders under state and territory legislation and can provide insight into how the existing system operates.

Sanmati Verma, Acting Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, who represents a number of clients in immigration detention and, along with the Kaldor Centre, intervened as amicus curiae in NZYQ v the Minister for Immigration. Sanmati will explain how NZYQ has impacted on immigration detainees since it was determined and what the future might hold for them.

Chair: Anna Talbot, Affiliate and Strategic Litigation Network Coordinator, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

After NZYQ – Community Safety Orders

On 14 and 15 April 2016, the Kaldor Centre was proud to co-host a symposium at All Souls College, Oxford to celebrate the scholarship of Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill. Professor Goodwin-Gill is a member of the Kaldor Centre’s Advisory Committee, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, and Emeritus Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford University. He has been an intellectual pioneer in identifying, mapping and shaping the sub-discipline of international refugee law.

The symposium brought together leading international refugee law scholars and practitioners. For more see: http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/news/celebrating-scholarship-professor-guy-s-goodwin-gill

Hélène Lambert - Celebrating the scholarship of Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill

11 April 2017, the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law hosted a seminar by David FitzGerald of the University of California, San Diego entitled 'Remote Control of Asylum Seekers: The US Experience'.

More information available: http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/event/remote-control-asylum-seekers-us-experience-0

Kelly Newell's Album

Remote Control of Asylum Seekers: The US Experience

For more on the Kaldor Centre Conference 2018 'Refugee Diplomacy: Negotiating protection in a changing world': www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/node/1779

Kaldor Centre Conference 2018 Panel 3 - Q&A - Behind the scenes of refugee diplomacy

For more information on the Kaldor Centre Conference 2019 ‘Good decisions: Achieving fairness in refugee law, policy and practice’: https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/node/2039

Kaldor Centre Conference 2019: Keynote address

In quick audio explainers, legal experts break down the policies that entangle the people in our ‘Temporary’ series. Here, Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam answers some FAQ about refugees and Australia’s legacy caseload.

Visit the full 'Temporary' project at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

10-Minute Law Episode 1: Jane McAdam breaks down refugee basics

In quick audio explainers, legal experts break down the policies that entangle the people in our ‘Temporary’ series. Here, RACS Centre Director Sarah Dale steps through the challenges for all the minors who applied for protection as part of the legacy caseload.

Visit the 'Temporary' storytelling hub at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

10-Minute Law Episode 2: Sarah Dale on kids in the legacy caseload

The stories of people seeking asylum are supposed to end. But in Australia, people who arrive by boat are seldom able to finish their story. This new eight-part narrative podcast reveals the stories of refugees trapped in a cycle of uncertainty. They tell their stories in Temporary, a new narrative podcast from UNSW, in partnership with Guardian Australia.

Episode one and two released on the 26th of November.

Visit the 'Temporary' storytelling hub at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

Introducing Temporary

Why would a boy leave everyone and everything he'd ever known to run for protection? And what if, when he did, he ran right into a different political wall? Find out how Zaki negotiated hunger, the Sydney property market and a visa that wouldn’t let him work or study in Australia, to become an award-winning student, full-time worker and community ambassador who still isn’t allowed to call himself Australian.

'Temporary' Episode 2:  No right to work, no right to study

Listen to Arman share with host Sisonke Msimang how he came to understand that, when you're seeking asylum in Australia, there are no safety nets.
Visit the full 'Temporary' project at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

'Temporary' Episode 5: When the answer is no

Kaldor Centre Senior Research Associate Dr Sangeetha Pillai speaks with ABC Radio Darwin presenter Liz Trevaskis about the refugees that have spent a year in hotel detention in Darwin while awaiting medical treatment. Originally aired 3 February 2021: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/darwin/programs/drive/drive/13097212

Dr Sangeetha Pillai on ABC Radio Darwin

This panel problematises and critiques the notion of ‘displacement’ in the context of disasters and climate change. While the threat posed by climate change is real, its manifestations are not as straightforward as we might think. For instance, the idea that rising sea levels will displace millions of people and create ‘climate refugees’ is a popular trope, but it has little evidential grounding. Within the Pacific, multiple and diverse types of mobility, as well as immobility, have been used as coping strategies over centuries. This panel explores how a more nuanced understanding of displacement in the context of disasters and climate change, and its relationship to international protection, can open up possibilities for different kinds of durable solutions.

The Kaldor Centre hosted the Asia-Pacific component of a global conference held on 21 January 2021 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The conference was a partnership between UNHCR and the Global Academic Interdisciplinary Network (GAIN), established under the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees.

Re-examining displacement in the context of disasters and climate change: A Pacific perspective

The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW is the world’s first research centre dedicated to the study of international refugee law. Through high-quality research feeding into public policy debate and legislative reform, the Centre brings a principled, human rights-based approach to refugee law and forced migration in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, and globally.  It provides an independent space to connect academics, policymakers and NGOs, and creates an important bridge between scholarship and practice.  It also provides thought leadership in the community through public engagement and community outreach. 

UNSW Kaldor Centre

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