UN Global Compact on Refugees: Developing an Australian National Action Plan

The Global Compact on Refugees, endorsed in late 2018, has introduced a new dynamic into efforts internationally to improve burden and responsibility sharing for large-scale refugee movements. As an intended blueprint for fairer, more predictable and sustainable international cooperation, it contains suggested activities for States, such as Australia, to consider including in regional and national action plans. If it works, the global response should be much enhanced, which would be to the benefit both of refugees and of all States called upon in different ways to respond to them.

Why the Compact is needed

The Compact stems from the growing apprehension about the size, scope and severity of recent refugee crises. Many have become protracted and solutions are few. There are concerns about funding shortfalls and the appreciation that humanitarian emergencies have major development implications which are not addressed by the big development actors, including influential financing institutions like the World Bank.

In addition to concerns about the size of the numbers of global refugees, some 85 per cent of refugees arrive and stay in countries neighbouring their own. These are mainly low-or-middle income countries whose environment and infrastructure cannot support the burden of largescale refugee arrivals. Some 60 per cent of refugees are hosted by just 10 countries, with the list including only one developed country – Germany. The Compact is an effort to address this asymmetry in how displacement affects the world.

The four key objectives of the Compact are to ease pressure on countries that host refugees; build the self-reliance of refugees; expand access to third countries through resettlement and other pathways of admission and foster conditions for return.

To meet these objectives, the Compact includes a range of measures designed to help host states and local communities better receive refugees and meet their needs; bolster host states’ capacity to include refugees in national systems (health, education); mobilise extra support through development channels, new forms of finance, preferential trade arrangements and private sector investment and foster self-sufficiency of refugees, for example, by providing jobs or land to farm.

An Australian Action Plan

The global displacement problem impacts Australia directly. Achieving the objectives of the Compact at home and abroad is in Australia’s direct interests. As a donor, it has consistently made a point of demanding well-conceptualised programs which emphasise partnerships and effective delivery. The Compact has the potential to materially improve program planning and delivery, the possibilities for refugees to access quality assistance and protection where they first seek it, or a broader range of resettlement options

Australia is well positioned to make a constructive contribution to implementing the Compact, possessing significant experience and capacity to draw upon. It can rightly boast a long-standing and successfully implemented resettlement program, ensuring it has technical and capacity building expertise in this area to offer.

A Global Refugee Forum will be convened in December 2019 (and then every four years) for all UN Member States to make pledges and contributions towards the objectives of the Compact. Australia could make pledges relating to financial, material and technical assistance; resettlement places and complementary pathways for admission to third countries.

The Compact allows for host countries whose response capacity risks being overwhelmed by a large-scale, complex refugee influx or a protracted situation calling for activation of pre-announced commitments of international support. Australia could consider now which specific complex refugee situations might/should engage our assistance.

The Compact also includes suggestions about how States might allocate more resources for refugee programs, including flexible, multi-year funding and additional development resources freed up to benefit host country communities and refugees and maximising opportunities for greater private sector investments. Australia should review existing funding arrangements and programs against these suggestions.

The Compact calls for new multi-stakeholder partnerships to drive refugee assistance efforts, including cities and municipalities hosting refugees, parliaments, civil society organisations, faith-based actors, Chambers of Commerce, academic institutions and sports and cultural bodies. Australia could build up an Australian Coalition of Support for the Compact, drawing on a range of entities and groups.

The Compact promotes contingency planning for possible new or evolving situations and recommends support in the form of standby capacity, including potential assistance packages, technical and human resources. Australia could review what it could contribute and commit to an international stand-by capacity and how it could reinforce UNHCR Support Groups.

The Compact sets out areas and activities for support by the international community to enhance resilience for host states and refugee communities. These range across education, jobs, health, the needs of women and girls, natural resource management, food security and statelessness. Initially, and without excluding support across a range of areas, Australia’s Plan could “adopt” an area, such as health, and commit to enhancing the quality of national health systems, to facilitate access by refugees and host communities, perhaps with a dedicated focus on the health of women and girls.

A primary objective of the Compact is to facilitate greater access to more diversified and reliable solutions. Of particular interest in the Australian context are recommendations to enhance resettlement programmes and complementary pathways for admission into third countries. These potential solutions deserve close scrutiny with a view to pledging a reasonable and ongoing increase to Australia’s annual refugee and humanitarian intakes and a review of enhanced entry visa opportunities, particularly in the areas of family reunion and for education. Some ideas to consider might include:

• rural employment sponsorship for people with particular required attributes
• Agreeing a burden sharing framework with New Zealand
• Community sponsorship for vulnerable groups
• New business mentoring arrangement for people from professional/trading/entrepreneurial backgrounds.

A guiding principle of the Compact is that it is grounded in the international refugee protection regime, centred on the cardinal principle of non-refoulement, the core of which is the 1951 Refugee Convention. Legislative reaffirmation of the commitment to the 1951 Convention and a review of Australia’s policies, legislation and practices to ensure they also meet these standards would position Australia as a good practice example regionally and globally.

This article is based on the 2019 UN Association of Australia Position Paper – UN Global Compact on Refugees – Developing an Australian National Action Plan.