Australia became a party to the 1951 United Nations Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1954 and acceded to its 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees in 1973. The Federal Government seeks to implement its obligations arising under the Convention via an on-shore program administered by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs under the provisions of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). This chapter outlines the eligibility for and rights arising under both these programs. For a discussion of the law relating to other means of entry to Australia, see Chapter 25: IMMIGRATION.
