20.
Those who come now are frequently different in colour
and cu ure from those of the 1950s but their case histories have
much in common.
A-very large proportion have been the innocent victims
They have been caught up in the aftermath of conflagration
and have found themselves homeless and with very limited horizons.
of war.
This was the situation in the wake of World War II which
produced a reaction of- European governments through the adoption of.
charters, conventions and covenants aimed at facilitating the
movement of millions of people and providing for their future.
The challenges were realistically taken up and massive
resettlement programs were produced to match the international
legal and moral commitments given by such countries as Australia.
The 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of
It gave a new status to
Refugees was one such instrument.
hundreds of thousands of people who, in the period before 1951,
had depended on the good offices of the International Refugee
Organisation in providing them with a future.
The Convention consolidated the previous attempts at
codification of provisions for the legal identification and
protection of refugees. It provided, for the first time, minimum
obligations for the protection of refugees including exemption
from penalties for unlawful entry across borders, safeguards
against expulsion and provision for satisfactory documentation..
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