The great achievement of this book is that the people are real, not figments of media construction, and we get to care about them, and worry for them. Australia has in recent years implemented harsh measures on refugees and asylum seekers, changing laws retrospectively and where necessary, to make anti-asylum seeker policy legal. These measures have been as popular as they have been misrepresented and misunderstood. This book gives an extraordinary and important insight into the secret daily life behind the wire of detention centres.