Regional refugee protection
This project explores the merits and opportunities of enhancing refugee protection at the regional level, both in Asia Pacific and other regions of the world.
The challenge
With record numbers of people displaced by war, violence and persecution globally, the question of how States might cooperate to manage forced migration and respond to the needs of people on the move has become more relevant than ever. The scope of global displacement demands something more than unilateral and uncoordinated State responses to forced migration. While the international protection regime provides an important overarching framework in this regard, it is also vital to consider how States respond to issues of shared concern at the regional level.
This project explores the normative and legal bases for cooperation on refugee protection in various regions, including Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Drawing on global, interdisciplinary expertise, the project considers how cooperation could be advanced across different regions and what responsibility sharing could and should look like in the design and development of protection responses.
Our impact
The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law has been at the forefront of global discussions as to how to advance cooperation and responsibility sharing for providing protection to refugees at the regional level. Over the past decade, our research has been cited by key decision makers and has featured in United Nations reading lists to assist global debates surrounding new approaches to refugee protection. Our team has also regularly been invited to participate in global and regional dialogues relating to refugee protection.
Through our ongoing work and partnerships, we have brought together diverse stakeholders to advance discussions around regional cooperation and refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific, and we have advanced knowledge in areas such as responses to the Andaman Sea Crisis, the implementation of refugee protection in Africa and Latin America, and approaches to extraterritorial processing in Europe. Our Emerging Scholars Network has also been a forum of support and engagement for early career researchers from across the regions, including from historically underrepresented areas.
We encourage you to explore the diversity of our research below, which canvass legal and policy issues across Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific.
Our work
Our work considers the merits and opportunities of regional approaches to refugee protection. It draws from lessons and insights from around the world to highlight opportunities and potential for meaningful cooperation and collaboration. In our work, we have emphasized the importance of transitioning from responsibility shifting to responsibility sharing, and of engaging a diverse set of actors as part of a whole-of-society approach to refugee protection.
Featured work
Publications
General
- Penelope Mathew and Tristan Harley, Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility (Edward Elgar Press, 2016)
- Jane McAdam et al, Our cruel and costly offshore processing system was a failure. We have a better solution on asylum policy (The Conversation, 26 July 2023)
- Daniel Ghezelbash, Refuge Lost: Asylum Law in an Interdependent World (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
- Madeline Gleeson, Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and Nauru (NewSouth,2016)
- David Cantor et al (including Riona Moodley and Natasha Yacoub), Externalisation, Access to Territorial Asylum and International Law (2022) 34(1) International Journal of Refugee Law 120
- Tristan Harley, Innovations in Responsibility Sharing for Refugees (World Refugee Council Research Paper No. 14, 2019)
- Madeline Gleeson, Regional Cooperation on Refugee Protection: The Unanswered Questions, Middle East Institute, 5 September 2017
Asia Pacific
- Natasha Yacoub, A New History of Refugee Protection in Post-World War Two Southeast Asia: Lessons from the Global South (2023) 13(2) Asian Journal of International Law 220
- Jessica Olney, Saiful Haque, Brian Barbour, Tristan Harley and Najeeba Wazefadost, Insecurity, Risk and Resilience: The Contributions and Challenges of Refugee-led Initiatives in Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh (Act for Peace, July 2023)
- Mohammad Baqir Bayani, Patrick Wall, Najeeba Wazefadost and Tristan Harley, In Endless Transit: Contributions and Challenges for Refugee-led Initiatives in Indonesia (Act for Peace, July 2023)
- Brian Barbour, Beyond Asian Exceptionalism: Refugee Protection in Non-Signatory States (2021) 67 Forced Migration Review 42
- Natasha Yacoub et al, Rights adrift: Sexual violence against Rohingya women on the Andaman Sea (2021) 22(1) Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 96
- Brian Barbour, Lilianne Fan and Chris Lewa, A Whole-of-Society Approach to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Strengthening Local Protection Capacity in South and South-East Asia (2021) 22(1) Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 28
- Tristan Harley, Global Compact on Refugees: Opportunities for Australian Reform and Leadership? (2019) 90 (4) AQ: Australian Quarterly 36
- Madeline Gleeson, ‘Unprecedented but unfulfilled: Refugee protection and regional responses to the Andaman sea ‘crisis’’ (2017) 38 Antropologi Indonesia
- Madeline Gleeson, Where To From Here?: Report from the Expert Roundtable on regional cooperation and refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific (Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, 2016)
Africa
- Tamara Wood, Who is a refugee in Africa? a principled framework for interpreting and applying Africa’s expanded refugee definition (2019) 31(2-3) International Journal of Refugee Law 290
- Tamara Wood, ‘The 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa’ in Satvinder Singh Juss (ed.) Research Handbook on International Refugee Law (Edward Elgar Press, 2019) 16
- Eunice Ndonga Githinji and Tamara Wood, Prospects for the Global Compacts in Africa: Combining international solidarity with home-grown solutions (2018) 30(4) International Journal of Refugee Law 699
- Tamara Wood, Expanding Protection in Africa? Case studies of the implementation of the 1969 African refugee convention’s expanded refugee definition (2014) 26(4) International Journal of Refugee Law 555
Europe
Riona Moodley, Rethinking ‘Regional Processing’ in Europe: Lessons from the Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) for Indochinese refugees (2023) 29(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights
Jane McAdam, Extraterritorial processing in Europe: Is 'regional protection' the answer, and if not, what is? (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law Policy Brief 1, May 2015)
Jane McAdam, The European Union qualification directive: the creation of a subsidiary protection regime (2005) 17(3) International Journal of Refugee Law 461
Latin America
Tristan Harley, ‘Regional Cooperation and Refugee Protection in Latin America: A ‘South-South’ Approach’ (2014) 26 (1) International Journal of Refugee Law 22
