Hirsi Ali urges refugee testing

Ms Hirsi Ali, arguably one of the most high-profile asylum-seekers in the world, believes the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees is out of date and unable to cope with the scale of migration, and says Australia is well-placed to lead moves to replace it.

Ms Hirsi Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, said it was futile for countries to attempt to establish the bona fides of would-be refugees, not least because many asylum-seekers will say anything in order to qualify for asylum.

She said refugee claims should be rigorously assessed on the applicant's ability to make a contribution to the host nation and to accept its values and culture.

"Everybody lies," she told The Australian yesterday.

"So what I am trying to say is that we have to change the paradigm. You have to say, 'You're welcome, we need immigrants but there are many conditions. Here is the law, the culture, the customs. Here is what you agree to, and in exchange you get to live in a peaceful, prosperous society where you have all this opportunity. If you don't agree we will just return you'."

Ms Hirsi Ali speaks from first-hand experience. She successfully sought asylum in The Netherlands in 1992, escaping a marriage arranged by her father against her will. At the time, she told the Dutch authorities she was fleeing the war in Somalia but later publicly admitted she had lied.

Ms Hirsi Ali speaks from her experience working as an interpreter with Dutch immigration and naturalisation services investigating applications for asylum from Somalis.

"The authorities wasted days trying to figure out if somebody actually came from Somalia, and had not lived in Kenya, and had not stayed in Germany. And ultimately these people stayed because Germany wasn't willing to take them back, Kenya wasn't willing to take them back," she says.

Ms Hirsi Ali has called on Australia to begin an international dialogue on the need to rewrite the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.

"The convention is not the Koran," she said.

"The convention is man-made, it's a secular convention, and the convention can be changed."

Ms Hirsi Ali says: "Australia should start the conversation that everybody wants to have. You can take the leadership saying, 'This convention is from a different era. It doesn't work for our time'."

Ms Hirsi Ali is in Australia to promote her latest book, Nomad, which follows on from her first autobiographical book, Infidel.

"Since I wrote Infidel, many people have asked me about what happened to my family. Nomad answers those questions."

Ms Hirsi Ali is accompanied by her partner, economic historian Niall Ferguson, a professor at the Harvard Business School.