THE blueprint for reform of Australia’s asylum seeker policy which was launched by three Catholic agencies last week makes a lot of sense.
It is indeed, as its title suggests, ‘A better way’.
As the working paper says, ‘The measure of any society is found in its care for the most vulnerable.’
It is clear that the way asylum seekers are treated by Australia is, in many cases, inhumane.
One of the most urgent of the proposals contained in the working paper is for asylum seekers to be relocated from behind the barbed wire fences in remote areas that are referred to as detention centres.
A community-backed system where asylum seekers are looked after and have ready access to social services would be a much more humane alternative.
