Dear Shadow Minister,

UNHCR states quite clearly - that:

"International law prescribes that no individual can
be returned involuntarily to a country in which he or
she has a well founded fear of persecution."

Australia's High Court agrees with that statement and
has issued an injunction against our current Government.

Egad!...should I be mortally wounded because OLO's intellectual giant, Bazz, has just called me "stupid"?

I sincerely don't know if I can carry under such onerous judgement.

But I think I will...as the fabulous (and wholly bigoted) Lester 1, who appears to support abusers up and down this forum has just graced this thread with his irksome presence.

Lester1,

Was your 5th great-grandmother black?

Foxy,

A snippet on the issue of refoulement:

https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/13756/000-wouters-B-25-02-2009.pdf?sequence=2/

As has been said, in general the prohibition on refoulement aims to prevent individuals from being subjected to human rights violations; it protects people from future harm. The prohibition does not apply to every human right. Looking at the treaties which are the subject of this study such harm is defined by such concepts as persecution, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

1.3.2.3b Diplomatic assurances to guarantee safety
The practice of diplomatic assurances to guarantee the safety of people after their removal is another method used to allow the removal of aliens without violating the prohibition on refoulement...The
assurances aim to minimise or negate the risk of proscribed harm and are provided by the country of origin, most commonly at the request of the removing State.

To put it simply, for the coalition to return the boat people it must only satisfy itself that there it is reasonable to expect that those returned will not be subjected to persecution, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The 5 years of peace, and vastly improved human rights, along with the guarantee from the government is more than enough.

Dear Shadow Minister,

The Australian Government is actively colluding in the
imprisonment and torture of dissidents fleeing
one of the most brutal regimes in Asia. A regime
currently being investigated by the UN for war crimes.
We are handing the persecuted back to the persecutors.
You may not have a problem with this.
I do.

What's happened to our country which once had a proud
liberal democracy that peacefully settled hundreds
of thousands of refugees from all over the world?

Dear Bazz,

You might have been born yesterday but give the rest of us a little credit.

Suddenly it seems a boat load of asylum seekers has turned up and apparently rather fortuitously with all aboard having their documentation intact (a singularly rare occasion as we have been repeatedly told by you lot and sneering politicians that they throw it away), without having learnt the correct spiel (the one we have been told that the cunning people smugglers insist they learn), 90% who are apparently Singalese rather than Tamil, and who have all been prepared to answer the 6 questions put to them freely and without obfuscation (which we have been told they never have done in the past).

Further except for one individual in a boat load of refugees coming from a country which has almost universally condemned for continuing human rights abuses and has had valid questions about genocidal behaviour hanging over its head have found to perhaps have a valid claim for asylum.

And you really think we are not being lied to? Particularly by a government which has such a infamous track record of deceit?

You might indeed be a mug along with SPQR but please don't insult our intelligence my friend.