Under the new federal government policy, asylum seekers and people overstaying their visas will only be detained if they are believed to pose a risk to the community.

Former detainee Ramin Amad, an Afghani refugee now living in Griffith, was glad the policy has been changed.

“It’s very good news, especially for refugees,” he said.

“[Port Hedland Detention Centre] was like a prison. It was hot, boring, and we couldn’t leave.”

After coming to Australia eight years ago, Mr Amad was held in Port Hedland detention centre for five months.

Now working at a car wash on Banna Avenue, Mr Amad said he had a terrible time in the detention centre.

“We asked some people how long they had been in the detention centre, and they said three or four years,” he said. “We were scared we would be there for that long.”

The new system, announced yesterday by immigration minister Chris Evans, will require the immigration department to explain every three months why a person is being detained.

Children and their families will now be housed in community facilities rather than detention centres.

The controversial mandatory detention policy was introduced by the Keating government in 1994, and was retained by the Howard government.

Leeton woman Nannette Tehan was one of the founding members of the Riverina branch of Rural Australians for Refugees, a group designed to challenge mandatory detention.

Though the group is largely inactive now, Mrs Tehan still takes an interest in the issue, and said yesterday’s announcement was good news.

“Having been involved with refugees for the last seven or eight years, there would be many of us in the district who would be pleased the government has taken this humane step,” she said.

Mrs Tehan said people in Griffith had been proactive in welcoming refugees to the town.

But not all Riverina residents are happy with the reforms.

Murrumbidgee National Party council chairman John Fulton said he thought the government’s changes to mandatory detention were reckless.

“To just open the gate and let everybody out of detention I think is probably a mistake,” he said.

“I would rather see a continued approach where we make sure the people we’re letting in do have a clean slate and genuine refugee claims.”