Refugee Update

You'll recall last week's good news that almost 200 asylum seekers due to be returned to Nauru were instead placed in community detention. However, the situation turns out to be confusing. Clearly, the government is concerned by the publicity and protests surrounding their cruelty to innocent people, including babes in arms. However, the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, has engaged in what's been labelled "bureaucratic sleight-of-hand": he has declared that all children have been released into community detention, whereas in fact at least some are still held in detention centres, albeit with some restrictions eased. IIUC at least some of the kids due to be sent to Nauru are genuinely out of the centres, but the government unsurprisingly declines to clarify the situation further. Dutton still insists everyone will be sent back to Nauru.