The sudden arrival of hundreds of "boat people" on remote Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island, and the stand-off regarding the future of some 400 "boat people" rescued by a Norwegian container ship near Indonesia, have raised the question of Australia’s treatment of refugees and illegal immigrants, but more fundamentally, of the inadequacy of Australia’s maritime defences.Australia is a party to the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, and like almost every other count…
