Title: Refoulement and refugees

Authors: Jasper Sugars

Addresses: P.O. Box 2776 Darwin, Northern Territory 0801, Australia

Abstract: Refoulement, a French word meaning to reject; or backwash, is a topic of hot debate in the current Australian political arena. However, the context of the word as it is in this article is unknown to most of the public world - government operations to deter asylum seekers titled 'pushing back the boats', 'Operation Sovereign Borders', among others are questionably pushing the limits as to what's refoulement and what is not - but the worded meaning under the law (1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees) is the process by which a refugee is forcibly removed back to a place where they are re-exposed to the same danger from which they are trying to escape. From a legal perspective, the term is found in the 33rd article of piece of international law - drafted in response to the holocaust and other atrocities which occurred in Europe during World War II - known as the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The following is a discussion of some of the issues surrounding refugees, especially from the Australian perspective.

Keywords: refugees; refoulement; United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; Australia; asylum seekers; deterrents; government operations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2015.074931

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2015 Vol.3 No.4, pp.343 - 350

Received: 25 Aug 2015
Accepted: 25 Aug 2015
Published online: 24 Feb 2016 *

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