Convention tool for people smugglers: gov

Scott Morrison says the UN Refugee Convention may have started out as a sensible document but over the decades it has become a tool for people smugglers to "run death voyages".

The immigration minister is seeking a High Court ruling that would change Australia's interpretation of the 1951 convention, saying the current legal view of the document goes beyond its original obligations.

News Corp says the High Court bid centres on the case of a Hazara truck driver, whom the government believes could return to Afghanistan if he took up his previous occupation as a jeweller.

However, he says he would have no choice but to work as a truck driver and risks being targeted by the Taliban as part of their crackdown on western-backed reconstruction projects.

Mr Morrison said the refugee convention has been changed by decades of interpretation by lawyers, "which we would argue goes beyond what the obligations are".

Choice of job fell within a person's control, he said.

"What started out being a pretty sensible document over time has had layer upon layer upon layer and it is now being used as a tool by people smugglers to basically run death voyages," Mr Morrison told Macquarie Radio on Monday.