Tuckfield, Hugh
‘Australia’s troubling asylum seeker policy‘, The Diplomat, 18 February 2014
Considers the asylum seeker issue in the context of international refugee flows and international laws and conventions for the treatment of refugees.
Australia is a nation fixated on two phenomena: its sporting achievements and the arrival of asylum seekers by boat. Reconciling and comprehending Australia’s determination to invoke its sovereignty to deny the human rights of asylum seekers it has agreed to accept under international law is difficult given its abundance of natural resources, vast land mass, multiculturalism and acceptance of refugees in the past.