As Labor considers tougher migration measures amid pressure from One Nation and the Coalition, the legacy of Tampa still shapes how Australia treats refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

Very few Australians citizens would have any idea about the terror sweeping through the families of people seeking asylum, on Bridging Visas or just here to learn. As the media casually speculate on why the Minister for Home Affairs. Immigration and Citizenship, Tony Burke, cancelled his scheduled announcement at the National Press Club earlier this week, those in his hair-sights are already being rounded up.

Late last week, I received a call from a migration lawyer, a lawyer with over 40 years’ experience. He was panicking. His client had received a standard letter from Home Affairs asking them to come in for appointment to assess their employment. When the lawyer and his client walked into the office, the door was closed behind them and there was no bureaucrat behind the desk, rather there was three Australia Border Force officers waiting to take the lawyer’s client into immigration detention. While this was underway, the client’s family was being taken from their home, bundled into a waiting car and taken into community detention.

The lawyer was in a panic because he could not believe this was the Immigration department. He was ringing me because he thought the men dressed in the black ABF uniforms were possibly criminals, or some form of secret police. He........

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