Thank you Tim Dodd for continuing to follow Abu Quassey, something our government has vowed to do but clearly is not doing (AFR, January 7, page 3).

For me, apart from the grotesque nature of this crime against humanity, is that this government and many commentators still refuse to understand we are talking about fellow human beings.

Sondos Ismail and her three beautiful little girls were not criminals. They did not deserve the shocking and tragic fate they suffered. Imagine being in the water for 22 hours watching hundreds of people drown around you and managing to survive, only to be called an illegal immigrant and not a person deserving of our sympathy and care.

Or Najah, who lives in my city, grieving for the loss of most of her family, including a little baby boy. What did she do to deserve such a nightmare from which she will never recover? These women just wanted to be with their husbands already here, a reunion denied to them by the Australian government.

Let us all consider the heroism required to survive this disaster and demand our government finally actually investigate. They have had 15 months of doing nothing.