Officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees also say quietly that the returns from Egypt, insofar as they were prompted by near-destitution, risk violating one of the key principles of refugee law: the idea that people should not be sent back to their home country against their will.

ECONOMIST: Repatriating refugees

The members of the Security Council reaffirmed the need to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and all obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.

UN: Security Council

His successful opponent was Radek Sikorski, now foreign minister, who had fled Poland as a political refugee from the martial law that Mr Rakowski so steadfastly defended.

ECONOMIST: Mieczyslaw Rakowski

Under this legislation, the United States codified into law our asylum and refugee resettlement processes.

WHITEHOUSE: Our Top Stories

Now, perilously near those anniversaries, crowds are massing in Miami to prevent the seizure by federal agents of Elian Gonzalez, a six-year-old Cuban refugee who must, under American law, be returned to his father and to Cuba.

ECONOMIST: The pawns of Fidel

It was not until 1980 that a new law rubbed out any reference to communism in America's definition of a refugee.

ECONOMIST: Immigration policy