The Age reports that the Federal Government’s security adviser has been sent to Malaysia and Sri Lanka to negotiate ways to stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia. Mission aims to stem flow of asylum seekers.
If they are stopped in Malaysia and Indonesia – what then?
Persecuted as illegals in these nations that do not offer asylum?
Return to persecution? If so, which nation would be responsible for the refoulement – Indonesia or Malaysia, or Australia?
(Refoulement means the expulsion of persons who have the right to be recognised as refugees, laid out in 1954 in the UN-Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which, in Article 33(1) provides that:
“No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
The principle of non-refoulement does not only forbid the expulsion of refugees to their country of origin but to any country in which they might be subject to persecution.)