Speaking to SBS Kurdish's Mayada Kordy Khalil, Tim O'Connor says the Refugee Council of Australia's role sees them work with national and international government policies affecting refugees and asylum seekers and communicating to migrant communities and ensuring their voices are being heard.
He says the RCOA worked very hard with Tony Abbott's Federal Government in 2015 to get the additional 12,000 humanitarian places made available for people fleeing conflict in Iraq and Syria.
He admits the processing of those places has been quite slow compared to countries like Canada, he says the Refugee Council has been seeing more Syrian and Iraqi's coming to Australia and they welcome that.
He says they work to ensure resettlement goes smoothly.
"They are quickly integrated into the communities that accept them, they can get the access to the English classes if children are enrolled in schools, they can get access to healthcare and their accommodation is appropriate to ensure they can quickly become part of the Australian community and continue to rebuild their lives."
Mr O'Connor also raises concerns about the detention of asylum seekers on offshore processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island saying they are deeply concerned about the situation.
"They've suffered far too long, they did not need to suffer at all, these are people who came to us seeking the safety and protection of Australia and we've locked them up in these island gulags far away from any sort of transparency."
He does not support the proposed bill to impose a life ban on people who have arrived to Australia by boat from ever visiting Australia - calling it "unfair".
Incoming US President Donald Trump is also causing concern about how he would manage international migration policy.
Mr O'Connor says he's already received feedback from communities.
"We're hearing from many communities that we're in regular contact with that there's alot of anxiety in their communities about this shift and i think it sends reverberations around the world cause no one's quite sure how this is going to play out at this stage."
