Meg Pickup, Ballina
The first part of the Miriam Margolyes Almost Australian series on television highlighted the cruelty of Australia’s refugee policy.
Her interview with a young man from Afghanistan was heart wrenching. He came to Australia by boat, as an unaccompanied minor, after his parents and siblings were murdered. Despite being here for ten years, he still only has a temporary protection visa.
His future in Australia is uncertain. The Minister for Immigration has the power to resolve this, yet seems to lack the will to do so.
How is it that in 2020 our government still persists with a policy that can be compared with the 1857 US Supreme Court Dred Scott ruling that no black person, slave or free, could ever become a US citizen?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
