The protections of the refugee convention are only words, Ghezelbash argued, and their actual effectiveness is shaped with the actions of the states who implement it.

“The risk,” he said, “is we’ll see a race to the bottom as countries compete to deter asylum seekers. This competitive approach creates a vicious cycle, in which governments seek to outdo each other by implementing progressively more restrictive policies.

via ‘A race to the bottom’: how Australia imported its asylum seeker policies from the US | Australia news | The Guardian