PM Kevin Rudd seeks asylum seeker policy overhaul as another boat rescued off Christmas Island

Updated

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is poised to overhaul Labor's asylum seeker policy, after yet another boat carrying asylum seekers was rescued off Christmas Island overnight.

For now the details of the new policy are a tightly guarded secret and not subject to wide consultation, although the ABC's AM has been told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been involved in discussions.

The Government is under increasing pressure to address the issue after a wave of asylum seeker arrivals and disasters in recent days.

The 120 people rescued last night will be processed on Christmas Island today.

The boat sent out a distress call yesterday when it got into trouble about 95 nautical miles east of Christmas Island.

Key points 120 asylum seekers rescued by Navy off Christmas Island last night

Kevin Rudd says 1951 Refugee Convention being assessed

Gareth Evans says Convention may need changes to reflect current conditions

Refugee tribunals already ordered to use new country assessments

Four asylum seekers drowned during Navy Rescue on Tuesday night

Baby boy among nine killed off Christmas Island on Friday

Australian Navy ship HMAS Bathurst, Customs vessel Triton, and a Customs plane were sent to assess the situation.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says all 120 people on board the boat were transferred to the Australian ships for safety reasons because of rough conditions.

On Tuesday night, four people drowned off the island when their boat capsized in rough seas and on Friday a baby boy was among nine asylum killed when their boat sank off the island.

Refugee Convention under scrutiny

The Government is looking at three main changes to its asylum seeker policy.

They will include a tightening of processing rules for economic migrants and greater cooperation in the region, particularly with Papua New Guinea, and there will be a pledge to address the effectiveness of the 60-year-old United Nations Refugee Convention.

"We're looking at this right now globally in terms of the effectiveness of the Refugees' Convention," Mr Rudd said last night.

"We're looking at it regionally in terms of our co-operation with regional states in South-East Asia and the south-west Pacific, hence my visit to Indonesia."

What is the UN Refugee Convention? A legal document defining who is a refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of states who are signatories.

The 1951 document related to WWII refugees in Europe.

In 1967 a protocol was added to give the document universal scope. Key principles: It is not illegal for people to seek asylum and doing so may require people to breach immigration rules.

A refugee must not be returned against their will to a territory where they fear threats to life or freedom.

The convention is to be applied without discrimination to race, sex, religion, or country of origin.

The convention lays down basic minimum standards for the treatment of refugees, including access to courts, primary education and work. How the Refugee Convention can be changed: Australia can request revisions for the convention at any time by a notification to the UN Secretary-General.

The UN General Assembly will recommend steps to be taken in the event of such request.

Similarly, Australia can completely denounce the convention by notifying the UN Secretary-General.

This would take effect one year from when the UN receives the notification. Read the UN Refugee Convention here.

Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Government's policy needs an upgrade to deal with the changing situation.

"As the people smugglers' model changes, so must policy change," he said.

"So there's no point in time in which you can say that all the work is done. What you need to do is constantly modify your policy to meet the changed response."

Once Mr Rudd announces his suite of asylum policy changes in the days ahead it is thought he will then switch his focus to an election date.

'Australia wouldn't walk away from obligations'

Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans has acknowledged concerns with the way the Refugee Convention applies to the 21st century.

Professor Evans says that while he does not believe Australia would ever walk away from its obligations under the convention, there are some issues that could be addressed.

"It's perfectly sensible to open up an international conversation about the scope of the convention but the truth of the matter in the short term, the medium term, the solution has to lie both in domestic measures and more particularly regional measures, offshore processing of the kind that was tried but rejected by the Opposition and the Greens in the case of Malaysia," he said.

"I can't believe that Australia would ever walk away from our obligations under the convention. But at the same time I think we have to recognise that for decades actually there have been concerns about the applicability of the convention to the circumstances of the 21st century compared with the post-World War II years when it was first created."

The Federal Government has already ordered Australia's refugee tribunals to take new country assessments into account when deciding on claims of asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

But international law expert Ben Saul is concerned about Labor's intentions.

"I think what the Government's really saying here is that it wants to reduce the level of protection," he said.

"Reviewing the effectiveness of the convention is worthwhile only if it means strengthening the protection."

He says there is no appetite internationally to change the Convention.

Meanwhile, Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says he has strong reservations about the Refugee Convention but he would not say yet whether a Coalition government would remain a signatory.

"I've said pretty plainly that I have strong reservations about the way that is interpreted and how that is impacting upon how our policies operate here domestically," he said.

"When I'm ready to make further announcements on that in the course of between now and the election then the Coalition will do that at a time of our choosing, not of Kevin Rudd's."

Topics: refugees, community-and-society, immigration, federal-government, federal-elections, christmas-island-6798

First posted