Peter Khalil believes the "fair share agreement" could see hundreds of thousands more refugees resettled each year.

Mr Khalil said the global approach would help take toxicity out of the refugee debate, saying those on the far right saw asylum seekers as potential terrorists, while those on the far left saw them as stricken moral angels.

"Because each country would be doing their fair share, it would depoliticise the domestic decision-making around refugee policy that plagues Australia and other nations," he told Deakin University on Monday.

Each country's commitment to settle more refugees would be based on negotiated metrics such as population, GDP per capita and historical refugee intake.

Nations that opt out would have to make financial contributions to help pay for resettlements.

"Coupled with the retention of anti-people smuggling operations, a 'fair share agreement' with multiple countries taking more refugees each year, would see the 'queue' finally move," Mr Khalil said.

Just 94,200 of the world's 25.9 million refugees were resettled last year.

Australia resettled more than 12,000 refugees while Canada (28,076) and the United States (22,900) led the way.

"There are dozens of wealthy or developed nations that resettle a handful of refugees," Mr Khalil said.

He said the growing crisis demanded a coordinated response and urged Australia to take the lead, ahead of the first United Nations Global Refugee Forum in Geneva next week.

Australian Associated Press