Politicians outdo each other with tough measures to deal with asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
But someone has to look people in the eye and do the questioning, the arresting, the detaining and the deporting.
For a time, that someone was Peter Mitchell.
Hoping for a quiet public-service job, Mitchell walked into the Department of Immigration in 1990 and quickly found himself on the frontline of one of the nation’s most divisive issues.
With the wry humour shared by those in uniform, Mitchell describes his early years collaring illegal
workers and visa overstayers. But things became a lot more challenging when he
was appointed manager of the infamous Villawood detention centre, and later of
Operation Safe Haven, ministering to the desperate flood of refugees from
Kosovo and East Timor.
How do you reconcile your sense of compassion and
decency with the demands of fair and proper procedure?
For the first time, Compassionate
Bastard takes us behind the razor wire to reveal the sometimes
difficult, sometimes farcical processes our public servants are duty-bound to
implement while dealing with people in traumatic circumstances.
But someone has to look people in the eye and do the questioning, the arresting, the detaining and the deporting.