The strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees will be commemorated tomorrow on World Refugee Day.
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But the jury is still out whether Australia is doing enough to address the growing global trend of forced displacemnt.
But refugee advocate Phil Orchard said in a positive note Australia tended to resettle a lot of refugees.
The University of Wollongong Associate Professor of international relations said only Canada and the US resettled more than Australia's 12,700 contribution.
But Prof Orchard said new global statistics for 2018 released today by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR didn't paint a good picture.
"Right now we are in a period where forced migration figures have grown and they are now at the highest levels since the second world war," he said.
UNHCR's 2018 Global Trends report shows that the number of refugees and people seeking asylum increased by 1 million during 2018 to 29.4 million - 25.9 million refugees and 3.5 million people seeking asylum.
In addition, 41.5 million people are forcibly displaced inside their own countries, an increase of 1.5 million on the previous year.
Prof Orchard said the number of refugees and people seeking asylum continued to grow because so few refugees were finding effective solutions for their displacement.
Fewer than 600,000 refugees were able to return home in safety in 2018 and the number of refugees resettled globally was just 92,400, the lowest number for six years and less than half the 189,000 refugees resettled in 2016.
"There is about 52 active conflicts or wars being fought at the moment and that is causing a lot of displacement," Prof Orchard said.
"There is 13 million displaced people in Syria alone.
"State's such as Myanmar are also increasingly deliberately displacing their own populations. The growth of inter-ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo saw 300,000 people displaced at the start of the month.
"We are seeing a lot more refugees and internally displaced persons in the system and unfortunately international cooperation isn't keeping up.
Prof Orchard said the decline in resettlement numbers in a lot of countries was concerning.
He said the US policy since Donald Trump became president wasn't great for refugees.
"Under the Trump administration US resettlement figures have declined catastrophically. The US used to take in 65-70,000 refugees a year. They took in only 22,900 in the latest figures," Prof Orchard said.
Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power said much more constructive leadership was needed from Australia and other countries if the world is to make a difference to the lives of refugees searching for basic protection.
"In Australia and many other countries, we see political leaders scaremongering about movements of refugees and yet doing too little to offer constructive alternatives for refugees who cannot find protection," Mr Power said.
"The resettlement of 12,700 refugees to Australia was a helpful contribution but far too modest given Australia's capacity and global needs.
"We cannot collectively promote resettlement as a serious durable solution when fewer than 0.4 per cent of the world's refugees had access to resettlement in 2018."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
