This boosts Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott’s attack on the Gillard government over its Malaysia refugee swap, because Malaysia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention.
Signatories commit to key human rights principles, including not returning refugees to countries from which they have fled.
Abbott last Saturday toured Nauru to argue a processing center located there would be a “more humane’’ option for boat arrivals. The Nauru government released a statement yesterday saying Stephen has signed the instruments of accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
