At the start of 2002, there were five million people classified as refugees and approximately twenty two million people 'of concern' to the agency.
141 countries have signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which obliges them to shelter refugees who come to their country. The convention does not oblige countries to allow refugees to stay indefinitely, to give them citizenship, or allow economic refugees to remain.
Increasingly in Australia, Asylum Seekers arrive by boat from Indonesia or other neighbors.
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