The mindset of Bruce Haigh on people smuggling can be viewed at:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/confessions-of-an-australian-diplomat-guilty-of-unashamed-kindness/2007/09/26/1190486390154.html

Commentary on the mindset of Bruce Haigh can be viewed at:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/haighs_chocolate_coating

Well worth reading is “The Problem with the 1951 Refugee Convention” by Monash University academic Adrienne Millbank. It provides an appendix listing UN Member States and their status as being either Signatories or Non-signatories to the UN Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Afghanistan is listed as being a non-signatory, however, listed as signatories in the immediate region of Afghanistan where asylum seekers could apply for unhcr protection are the following countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan Turkey and Turkmenistan. And that is only the immediate region. So why is it necessary for asylum seekers to travel long distances around the world through countries with little interest in persecuting in order to seek refuge in Australia, even though there are several signatories located adjacent to or in the immediate region of Afghanistan. Perhaps their aim is not so much to escape persecution, but more to settle in an affluent western country.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/rp/2000-01/01rp05.htm