Tag: Refugee Law
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Chris Rowe: Human rights as ceiling: the government’s asylum reform proposals
When the government announces a ‘crackdown’ or some new tough policy on immigration or asylum, it is important to recognise that what this means (at most) is that migrants will be treated in accordance with the new policy unless their Convention rights require that they are treated otherwise; at most, since often when the policy…
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Sarah Keenan: The Blurring of Australian and Nauruan Jurisdiction
On Easter Sunday, it was revealed that Nauru had withdrawn from the bilateral treaty which gave Nauruan residents access of appeal to the High Court of Australia. The following day, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that Australia was notified of the withdrawal in December, meaning that pursuant to the treaty’s 90-day…
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Greg Weeks: Comment on Australia: Protection of refugees who do not “live discreetly”
At the political level, Australia’s lamentable record of mistreating refugees is well established and is catalogued and critiqued elsewhere, such as by my colleagues at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. Within the scope allowed by Australia’s stringent migration legislation, the judiciary has a much stronger modern record in regard to protecting the interests…
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Emily MacKenzie: Successful Challenge to Levels of Asylum Support – R (on the application of Refugee Action) v Home Secretary
The High Court recently upheld an important challenge in the field of asylum support. In June 2013, the Home Secretary decided that weekly cash payments to “destitute” asylum seekers in the 2013-14 financial year should remain frozen at the rate which had applied since 2011. In R (on the application of Refugee Action) v Home…
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Colin Harvey: Who ‘Deserves’ to be a Refugee?
Does ‘status’ really matter? In the global age of human rights it seems that being a ‘person’ is all that should count. Human rights apply to everyone. As we know, from recent political debates in the UK (noted here by Gavin Phillipson), this includes terrorist suspects. Successive UK governments, and Prime Ministers, have expressed frustration…