Submission 39 - Inquiry into the Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

Members of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney provided this submission to the Inquiry into the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for Australia’s foreign affairs, defence and trade.The Kaldor Centre is the world’s leading research centre dedicated to the study of international refugee law. The Centre was established in October 2013 to undertake rigorous research to support the development of legal, sustainable and humane solutions for displaced people, and to contribute to public policy involving the most pressing displacement issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the world.Their submission considers two issues relevant to the Inquiry’s terms of reference and the Centre’s expertise. The first is how States’ responses to refugees and people seeking asylum in the context of COVID-19 pose challenges to the international rules-based order, in Australia’s region and beyond. The second is the implications of COVID-19 for the Pacific, particularly the need to promote longer-term resilience through measures to address the impacts of climate change, such as enhancing mobility