←

Najeeba's story

Najeeba Wazefadost
“Leaving your country for good is one of the hardest decisions you can be forced to make.”
Read more

Fact 1

Fact 1
It is not illegal to seek asylum in Australia, even if arriving by boat.

Read more

Farida and Hussain's story

Hussain Dad
“My children are safe and we can finally sleep well for the whole night, without fear and bomb blasts.”
Read more

fact 2

Fact 2
In Australia, there is 1.1 refugee for every 1,000 people.

Read more

John's story

John Jegasothy
“I’m really concerned about the misconceptions about refugees coming to this country.”
Read more

Fact 3

Fact 3
In 2010, 6,879 asylum seekers arrived in Australia. That’s only 6.8% of the seats in the MCG.
Read more

Chaman's story

Chaman Shah Nasiri
“After I left, my father was tortured so badly he died in prison… The same would have happened to me.”
Read more

Fact 4

Fact 4
Australian Centrelink benefits for an asylum seeker? $0.

Read more

Ashane's story

Ashane
“We knew the boat would be very dangerous, but there was nothing else. Everything else was hopeless.”
Read more

Fact 5

Fact 5
The number of refugees who have arrived by boat, and who have been terrorists? Zero.
Read more

Dinh Tran’s story

Dinh Tran
“When we left, mum & dad had already accepted that we were all going to die. You risk everything on a boat.”
Read more

Fact 6

Fact 6
In 2009, 8,427 sought asylum in Australia – compared to 45,197 in the United Kingdom.
Read more

→

Revising UN refugee treaty 'perilous'

20/07/2012

Published by The Sydney Morning Herald

View the article

The Story said

Australia’s human rights chief has warned there are ‘’real dangers’’ in any bid to revisit the United Nations Convention on Refugees after an Opposition spokesman said the agreement did not reflect the current realities of asylum seeker movements. President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Catherine Branson, QC, said while it was not a perfect set of rules, a great deal of law had been developed around it – and ‘’there is a lot of evidence that it is working’‘. Ms Branson also challenged Coalition proposals to turn back asylum seeker boats.’‘The evidence I have seen suggests that turning back boats is not a viable option and it is probably not acceptable to Indonesians.’’

Did you know

The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees was approved by the UN in the aftermath of World War II. The key legal document is still very relevant today as it defines who is a refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of states. As long as their is war, conflict and persecution in the world there will be refugees and thus this convention still relevant. A refugee is defined as “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it..” Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and as a result is obliged to uphold it.

See more facts

Join the conversation

Let's reject the myths and think again about asylum seekers and refugees. Join the conversation by adding #rethinkrefugees to your tweets or click on a link below to get involved in your local area.

← →