Their treatment also could vary, depending on the degree of risk they pose to the community. Sweden, for instance, offers asylum-seekers safe haven in community houses while their applications for refugee status are being processed. A coalition of welfare groups has written to Mr Ruddock suggesting an end to the detention of children. Women and children are most vulnerable, as has been made clear by allegations of child sexual abuse at Woomera. The problem is compounded when illegal immigrants are detained in isolated areas, away from access to services and help from those who speak their language and understand their culture.
Detention is an easy policy as it plays to popular anxiety and prejudice.
Other solutions are not considered because of fears asylum-seekers would disappear. Others see detainees as queue-jumpers who flout official avenues for claiming refugee status. Harsh treatment of detainees is seen by some as a valid means of deterring others from following them. But finding more humane strategies does not mean going soft on illegal arrivals. The influx of illegal immigrants poses difficult problems.