More than two million refugees globally will need to be resettled this year on top of a record-breaking 36 million existing refugees due to multiple conflicts, with Australia expected to play a significant role.
Focusing on turbulent hotspots, Australia pledged $265 million towards supporting displaced refugees from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sudan at the United Nations' Global Refugee Forum in December.
It has also recently granted temporary humanitarian visas to more than 2000 Palestinians fleeing the four-month-long Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
The Albanese government is also chairing the UN refugee agency UNHCR's Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways (CRCP) and the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility, where it has pledged to make resettlement of refugees a priority.
Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power said Australia had a responsibility as a good international citizen to help refugees find safe homes.
"Nations like Australia which are distant from the largest global movements of refugees must provide practical support to host nations which are currently bearing the greatest responsibility," he told AAP.
The council is representing the non-government sector to give practical policy advice.
"Australia's year of chairing the CRCP process provides an excellent opportunity to provide international leadership at a time when positive strategies to address forced displacement are more needed than ever before," Mr Power said.
"Over more than 75 years we have seen that people who have resettled to Australia as refugees have contributed greatly to our nation."
He pointed to refugee-led resettlement initiatives by the Australian Afghan Hassanian Youth Association (AAHYA) as an example.
The Sydney-based grassroots organisation is helping new arrivals who were evacuated after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021 to adjust to their new homes.
Apart from English classes and a thriving swim school, the association has developed a bi-cultural driving school where 250 women of refugee backgrounds have graduated, giving them independence.
Its model is being showcased at a UN-sponsored four-day conference starting on Monday of policymakers and advocates from 14 countries including Canada, Italy, Norway and the United States, where there are sizeable refugee communities.
"We assist with the day-to-day dilemmas of refugees who come here and start from nothing," said the association's director Sayeed Karimi.
