I don’t think I can really add much to the debate around Refugees except to express my disgust at the way we are incarcerating innocent people.

The recently announced “removal pending bridging visa” is the tiniest of concessions. It is excellent that these people, who have been incarcerated for over 3 years, will now be allowed out into the community. However I can’t a imagine life that was constantly under threat of being deported at the whim of the Department of Immigration (Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs).

It also indicates to me that the Department doesn’t consider these people a threat. If they did then they wouldn’t be allowed out into the community. Wasn’t this one of the defenses of mandatory detention?