Australian Detention Centres

 

A pictorial representation of the people currently imprisoned within Australian detention centres.

From The Age.com.au

Senator Amanda Vandstone has said that her Government's cruel policies should not be tempered with compassion because "the policies we've put in place have been effective, that is just obvious - the boats aren't coming like they were in 1999, 2000, 2001."

Really? Let's go to the score board:

1997-98: 2 716
1998-99: 3 574
1999-00: 8 205
2000-01: 7 881
2001-02: 7 808
2002-03: 6 602
2003-04: 6 196

(as at 25 June 2004)

Source: Departmental systems

Whilst actually boatloads of people may have decreased, decreases in detention rates since 1999 have been marginal and are still much increased since 1997 and 1998.