We must keep the door open to refugees

I WRITE in reply to the letter from Mr Ted Neville headlined ‘Asylum: where will it end?’ (Irish Examiner, Jan 7).

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention is as relevant today as it was 52 years ago when initially drafted for European refugees in the wake of World War II.

In fact, there were 12 million refugees in 2001. To deny millions the protection of this much-proven convention would be a grave derogation of human rights. After all, the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution is one of the most basic and fundamental of rights, and it is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights.