The New Zealand Herald

Long-distance refugees

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David Cooke points out that under internatio­nal agreements, nations are required to “accept displaced persons” as refugees, there is no question of a queue of applicants. But that relates to the first safe haven able to be reached. That country is obliged to not send them back to death or starvation.

It is absurdly soft-headed to assume everyone arriving at a remote nation’s border on foot or in a boat is a “refugee”, or even genuinely “displaced”, if they have travelled thousands of miles across more than one land border and/or through the waters of more than one sovereign nation. They are by definition not a refugee but a migrant — either a legal or an illegal one.

Australia is one of the world’s most generous nations in the numbers it accepts of legitimate­ly processed refugees. It does not deserve slanders over sensible border security.

Philip G, Hayward, Naenae.

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