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Australia's Legal Obligation to Refugees and Asylum Seekers

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Australia has a legal obligation towards asylum seekers and refugees.

Australia has a legal obligation towards Asylum Seekers and Refugees as it is a signatory to the UN Human Rights and Refugee Conventions. Furthermore, Australia has a moral obligation based on its membership of the world community.
“Australia is one of the 146 signatory countries to the United Nations 1951 Convention and or/ 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees”. (Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, 2009)
According to Australian Human Rights Commission an asylum seeker is someone who has fled their country and applies to the government of another country for protection as a refugee, (Australian Human Rights Commision, 2012) whereas a person is a refugee the moment he or she fulfils the criteria of the convention.
As part of signatory countries to the United Nations 1951 Convention they are “obliged to act according to their efforts to allow everyone to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. This right may not be invoked in the case persecutions genuinely arising from non- political crimes or acts of contrary to the purposes and Principles on the United Nations”. (United Nations, 2011)
This means that Australia has committed to respect the rights of refugees and to uphold the obligations set out in the treaty. This is in contradiction to the Migration Act 1958, which states, “Australian law requires that asylum seekers who have not been successful in their claims for refugee status and have no lawful basis for remaining in Australia be removed from the country as soon as practicable”. (Human Rights Law Centre, 2011)
While there are a vast number of people seeking asylum and applying for a refugee status, Australia set out a policy in which, under the humanitarian program, Australia can only accept a certain number of people every year who are seeking asylum and

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