But there is also a legal aspect to it. The United States signed and ratified the Geneva protocol agreement in 1967. That agreement provides the legal basis for American action regarding such refugees. It has provisions safeguarding the wellbeing of those who have had to flee their homes because of persecution for their race. religion. nationality. membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Article 33 of that agreement takes liberty and life as the criteria for granting asylum and prohibits the expulsion of the return of refugees to territories where their lives or their freedom would be threatened. The events that have thus far been revealed in this case seem to indicate that America may have directly violated these protocol agreements. If the treatment given the Lithuanian sailor by the other Russian crewmembers is any indication of the punishment that is yet in store for him. then it appears that Amerlean action was a violation of both basic humanitarian principles as well as the signed international agreement.
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refugees