Detention facts

Letter to the Editor - Fairfield Advance
29 July 2004

Dear Sir/Madam

Your article Free the refugees, 28/7 requires that a number of points be clarified.

There are no refugees in detention in Australia. As soon as an asylum seeker in detention is judged to need protection they are provided with an appropriate visa and released into the community.

The vast majority of people in Villawood are people who have overstayed their visas or who have been caught working illegally. In 2003-04 the Department located over 20,000 people who had overstayed their visas or breached their visa conditions.

Stewart Foster
Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA