The 1951 convention is one the key legal documents defining the rights of a refugee and the legal obligations of signatory states, including Australia, which has supported the convention since 1954.

Mr Morrison told 2GB radio on Monday that the 63-year-old text was no longer a “sensible” document.

“The difficulty we’ve got with the Refugee Convention is not the document itself, but how lawyers and others have interpreted it for the last 50, 60 years,” he said.

“… What started out being a pretty sensible document over time has had layer upon layer upon layer and it’s now being used as a tool by people smugglers to basically run death voyages.”

“What started out being a pretty sensible document over time has had layer upon layer upon layer and it’s now being used as a tool by people smugglers to basically run death voyages.”

His comments follow the transfer of 157 asylum seekers from Western Australia to Nauru on Friday evening, after the rejected offers to meet with Indian consular officials.

The group, which includes up to 50 children, had previously been in the Curtin Detention Centre after the vessel had been intercepted by naval authorities in late June.

Mr Morrison had previously said authorities attempted to transfer the group to India before taking them to the Western Australian detention centre, but the deal “was not accepted by India”.

The group did not speak with Indian consular officials when they visited the centre late last week, Mr Morrison said, prompting the transfer.

Refugees taught to use lifeboats

Lawyers for the 157 asylum seekers say the group were told they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats, which they would be taught to use.

Human Rights Law Centre Executive Director Hugh de Kretser told media on Monday that the group were “absolutely terrified” over the incident, which reportedly happened around mid-June.

“Australian government officers on board the customs vessel told the group they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats dropped in the ocean somewhere off the coast of India,” he said.

Mr de Kretser said he had been told that nine adults and two children were taken away from the rest of the group on July 14, when they were shown the lifeboats and told they would be put in them.

He said all instructions were given in English, which none of the asylum seekers are fluent in. Only a handful speak poor English.

“Whatever your personal views are on politics and refugee policy, this move was an affront to human decency,” he said.

Mr de Kretser also said the group were only allowed to change their clothes 11 days after being brought onto the Customs vessel, where they were kept in three windowless rooms 22 hours a day.