Mythbusting International Refugee Law - part 2
ERIC VAN BEMMEL This is Up Close coming to you from the University of Melbourne, Australia. I’m Eric van Bemmel and in this episode we’re trying to get a handle on international refugee law with professorial fellow and refugee law expert Jim Hathaway. Jim the term boat people, which those of us around in the ‘70s remember applying to originally Vietnamese refugees fleeing war-torn Vietnam. People who typically travel on dangerously overcrowded or dilapidated boats. One still sees the term in the newspapers and typically the countries that they’re headed for tend to get up in arms about the term. In Australia for example the media seem to really focus on them when they’re known to be on their way here. Why is that? JAMES HATHAWAY It’s a great question. I’ve often asked myself the same thing because many more people arrive to seek protection either directly by crossing over land on foot or on aircraft and they seem to attract dram...