Australia's offshore processing policy has been singled out as "particularly egregious" by Amnesty International as it warns of the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
In a new report - The Global Refugee Crisis: A conspiracy of neglect - the advocacy group calls for the establishment of a global refugee fund and a commitment to resettle more than one million refugees over the next four years.
The measures would help tackle what Amnesty describes as a growing crisis, with the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes exceeding 50 million by 2013.
More than half of Syria's population is displaced with refugees accounting for one in every five people in Lebanon.
"Calls by the UN for the international community to resettle refugees from Syria have largely fallen on deaf ears," the group says, revealing the total number of places offered to refugees from Syria is fewer than 90,000.
But it's not the only problem region.
So far there have been 1865 drownings as people try to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa while there are an estimated three million refugees are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Closer to home, the report says there has been a "blatant flouting" of the legal obligation to rescue distressed people at sea in South East Asia.
It also directly refers to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's "nope, nope, nope" response to questions about Australia resettling some of those rescued in the region earlier in the year.
"The policies pursued by Australia, Thailand and other countries in the region are largely attempts to push the issue of refugees and migrants out of their jurisdiction and out of sight of the public," it says.
The group wants an international summit on the global crisis with a focus on sharing the burden, as well as global ratification of the refugee convention and a commitment to saving lives first.
"The global refugee crisis may be fuelled by conflict and persecution but it is compounded by the neglect of the international community in the face of this human suffering," it says.
Releasing the report Amnesty International's secretary-general Salil Shetty called for a radical overhaul of refugee policy.
"The refugee crisis is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century, but the response of the international community has been a shameful failure," he said.
FACTBOX:
* More than 50 million people forcibly displaced from their homes by 2013
* More than 50 per cent of Syria's population currently displaced.
* One in five of the Lebanese population are refugees from Syria.
* As of May 31, 1,865 people died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
* Three million refugees in sub-Saharan Africa.
* 25,000 refugees and migrants attempted to cross the Bay of Bengal in the first quarter of the year, about double the number in the same period in 2014.
(Source: Amnesty International)
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