http://timblair.blogspot.com/2002_07_14_timblair_archive.html#79153303 On the Womera escapees: “So the guy lies about where he’s from and why he came here, his family arrive knowing they’ll be placed in detention, and his kids get mixed up with morons who use them for anti-government propaganda … and this is somehow our fault?”
I tend to agree with this, although I can see why people who don’t think asylum seekers should be locked up at all (including me) might be moved by this case—though of course this doesn’t change their legal or moral position (compared to that of two brothers who don’t escape, say).
(Compare the brothers’ story to that of two British PoWs, for example, who escape from a prison camp in WWII and who almost make it back home—you feel for them (and want to hear their story) even as you concede that they were acting illegally in trying to escape, and their captors justified in punishing them.) 14:33