The Wire

20 years ago, 433 asylum seekers were rescued by a Norwegian freighter named MV Tampa.

The government’s response, to refuse the asylum seekers entry into onto Australian shore, marked a major development for Australian immigration policy and signaled the start of an era of offshore processing which still lingers to this day.

Madeline Gleeson, senior research fellow at the Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, explains how Tampa left a lasting impact on the Australian psyche.