Little things like 2000 returned letters magnify contempt for human rights

It is the little things that count. Small gestures of friendship keep us from despair. And it's the little things that hurt too, like a letter to a friend that goes missing. When it is not one letter but 2000 that go missing, it doesn't look like carelessness; it begins to smell like evil. The processing system set up to deal with refugees on Nauru and Manus Island is so riddled with injustice and incompetence that it cannot long endure. The latest affront to the dignity of both those detained offshore and Australia's reputation is the report on last Tuesday's news that over 2000 letters of goodwill written by Australian citizens have been returned undelivered. They were intended to reduce the psychological isolation of men women and children who are already, as we know, kept under conditions that are at best indifferent to the emotional suffering and long-term psychological damage being wilfully inflicted