UNSW Kaldor Centre

Australia’s multi-billion-dollar offshore processing system has demonstrably failed to stop boats, save lives or break the business model of people smugglers, according to a new policy brief from UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. Released at a pivotal moment when the policy is drawing political interest elsewhere as an ‘Australian model’, ‘Cruel, costly and ineffective: the failu...

Think through the big issues in global displacement in the decade ahead with our panel of experts. A virtual panel session held on 17 November 2020 at the Kaldor Centre Conference 2020. Louise Aubin (UNHCR) Rez Gardi (Harvard Satter Human Rights Fellow) Cecilia Jimenez-Damary (UN Special Rapporteur, Human Rights of IDPs)Kathleen Newland (Migration Policy Institute) Chair: Jane McAdam (Kaldor Centr...

Australian lawyers reflect from the frontlines on the effectiveness and potential of strategic refugee litigation in this virtual panel session held at the Kaldor Centre Conference 2020 on 19 November 2020. Hear from our expert panel: Matthew Albert (Dever's List, Castan Chambers) Scott Cosgriff (Human Rights Law Centre) Arif Hussein (Refugee Advice and Casework Service) Sanmati Verma (Clothier An...

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...

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...

Go beyond the buzzwords to explore the promise and pitfalls of technology for refugee protection. This panel discussion was recorded on 18 November at the Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2020. Panel featuring: Tey El-Rjula (Author and tech entrepreneur, Fleur Johns (UNSW Sydney, Law & Justice), Petra Molnar (Refugee Law Laboratory)and Roya Pakzad (Taraaz)and chaired by Daniel Howden (Lighthouse R...

Hosted by the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford); Centre for Fundamental Rights (Hertie School, Berlin); Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness (University of Melbourne), and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law (UNSW Sydney), 'The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law' is a groundbreaking new book which critiques the status quo in international refugee law and sets th...

The pandemic put us all in limbo. For the first time, many Australians understood what it means to be stranded, unable to cross borders, separated from the people you love. When our government said we were ‘all in this together’ – what happened to the refugees in 'Temporary'? And what’s ahead for them? Sisonke Msimang interviews Sarah Dale, Director of RACS (Refugee Advice & Casework Service) to f...

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....

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

In part 7 of Temporary, we meet Hani. Back in 2013, with Operation Sovereign Borders, the Australian government launched an outright war on asylum seekers, condemning 30,000 people seeking safety to mandatory detention and temporary protection, leaving thousands of people like Hani, a young poet from Somalia, caught in the middle. Years after the harsh deterrence policies were implemented, we ask:...

One family. All devout pacifists, they all fled the same dangers and all of them are recognised refugees in Australia. The mother and children were resettled from overseas and now have permanent protection. But their father arrived by boat. He lives in anxious uncertainty, enduring an opaque reapplication process that could result in his being torn away from them. Produced with UNSW Centre for Ide...

The average time asylum seekers spend in Australian immigration detention is 564 days. Some people have been held for more than a decade. Kumar shares his story of indefinite detention, locked up for years without committing a crime. Produced with UNSW Centre for Ideas and Guardian Australia, hosted by Sisonke Msimang. Visit the full 'Temporary' project at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

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/

Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) Senior Solicitor Isobel McGarity explains enhanced screening, a 'cloaked, secretive' process that puts people at immediate risk of deportation. Part of a series of audio explainers accompanying our series 'Temporary', at temporary.kaldorcentre.net

In 2014, the Australian government cut funds for legal assistance to asylum seekers who had arrived by boat, abolishing help that had been in place for decades. RACS's Sarah Dale explains the importance of legal support, the impact of those funding cuts, and how it all played out when suddenly, in 2017, all 'legacy caseload' asylum-seekers were given a short and strict deadline to lodge an applica...

When Elaheh suddenly has to flee Iran, where 'everything is dangerous', she didn't realise she might never see her family again. She’s now a recognised refugee in Australia with an Aussie twang, but because she came by boat, the rules of her visa are not straightforward here, either. Its restrictions dictate whether her son, born in Adelaide, can ever meet the strong women who raised his resilient...

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/

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/

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...

Who are the Temporary people – and how did Australia trap them in such endless uncertainty? Meet Zaki, who fled a Taliban death warrant when he was a teenager and arrived in Australia labelled an ‘illegal maritime arrival’, in the first episode of Temporary – a narrative podcast from UNSW Sydney and Guardian Australia. Visit the 'Temporary' storytelling hub at https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net/

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...

Kaldor Centre's Director, Professor Jane McAdam, and Director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program, Jonathan Pryke, discuss their latest policy brief with Lauren Martin. Their report focuses on the role of mobility as a release valve for Pacific Islanders at risk of displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. It demonstrates why Australia should proactively develop laws...

Resettlement is a life-saving tool. It is a way that countries, like Australia, help refugees and their families to find safety. Now resettlement is under unprecedented pressure, what history is in the making for refugees in this current crisis? Find out from our expert panel, Kate O'Malley (UNHCR Canberra), Sally Pfeiffer (Department of Home Affairs), Paul Power (Refugee Council of Australia) and...

As the world comes to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic, crowded boats in the Bay of Bengal are once more forcing the region to confront the plight of Rohingya refugees seeking safety by sea.