Professor of Social Work at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Margaret Alston has this week been hearing submissions on Australia’s mandatory detention policy of illegal immigrants as part of a four-member panel on the People’s Inquiry into Detention at the University of NSW in Sydney. The Inquiry has completed public hearings in Port Augusta, Melbourne, Perth, Launceston and regional Victoria and is headed by Inquiry president Marcus Enfield. Professor Alston, who is also Director of the University’s Centre for Rural Social Research, is one of several Professors of Social Work from around Australia to sit on the Inquiry. Established to examine the effects of mandatory detention, the Inquiry has heard from a range of refugee advocates and detainees. “This Inquiry is an opportunity for those who would like to place on the public record their experiences of the mandatory detention policy,” said Professor Alston. “It is important that these experiences be documented and that emotions and feelings being experienced by those with first hand experience of the centres is acknowledged,” added Professor Alston.