Responses to refugee crisis should leave international framework intact

Policymakers should not suggest responses to the refugee crisis that redefine basic tenets of the international legal framework, argued Julian Lehmann on the Al Jazeera program Inside Story on January 22. In discussing policies to deter arrivals and calls for amendments to the​Refugee Convention, Lehmann said that the redefinition of fundamental legal concepts represents a ​“dangerous route” towards the undermining of EU values. At stake, he said, is a system of refugee protection that has remained stable, in spite of tests, since 1951.