lThe plan to send all boat-arriving asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea — and to resettle there all who qualify as genuine refugees — is a cynical abandonment by Australia of its responsibilities under the UN refugee convention, one that can be considered only a ploy for votes in the coming tightly contested federal election.
So, what is the UN refugee convention?
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html
The UN refugee convention was drawn up in 1951. Over sixty years ago, the world was a very different place. In 1951, the post WW2 era, the UN addressed the problem of refugees long after the issue was ignored and allowed the holocaust to take place.
It was probably based upon a collective sense of guilt and realization that in denying the Jewish citizens of Germany the right to emigrate they had condemned millions to die. The decision was not done in ignorance but in denial of what was happening in Germany under the Nazis.
It's time to revise the UN refugee convention because the world is a very different place today that it was in 1951
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