These refugees are like those from Vietnam who also were fleeing war, torture and oppression.

The Fraser government did not force them back. More than 150,000 Vietnamese refugees were resettled in Australia, generally becoming productive “New Australians”.

Most recent refugees also have chosen to escape war zones and oppressive regimes.

The so-called “solutions” of the previous and present governments are no help for those desperate enough to flee their homeland and risk their lives.

Their despair, and Australia’s “boundless plains to share”, must overrule political hostility.

Forcing these people off-shore to another place is, to my mind, politically sanctioned people-trafficking. It is a failure in the moral credibility of our wealthy and free nation.

Could we not introduce a more competent, humane and compassionate approach to those who come to our shores seeking a life free from persecution and despair?

Our laws and bureaucratic red tape seem to have created the problems that leave people in detention centres for months on end.

I had thought that, as Australians, we were capable of responding to such matters of humanity with both competence and compassion.

— KATHLEEN CUDMORE

Lavington