What are we to make of the news that Nauru has lifted all restrictions of movement on asylum seekers and promised to finalise their refugee claims within a week? Not as much as you’d think, so far as the asylum seekers are concerned, comments Dr Joyce Chia, a senior policy officer at the Refugee Council of Australia.

The facts are these –asylum seekers on Nauru were already able to move about during the day; they will still be housed in the detention centre (which is a decent bus ride away from anything else on Nauru); and their refugee claims had been determined many months ago, just not rubber-stamped.

More importantly, the basic problems with Nauru haven’t changed.

Nauru is still unsafe for these people. The public has only just begun to hear the full truth of the sexual and physical abuse that has been suffered by those already recognised by Nauru as refugees.

Nauru is also unsafe for gay refugees; homosexuality is still criminalised in Nauru.

Nor does Nauru offer what is known as a “durable solution” – that is, a way for a person to live in dignity and with hope.

Instead, it offers a temporary visa in a country where they have few employment or other prospects, and no chance of being reunited with loved ones back home. By now it is very clear that these people have also decided Cambodia doesn’t offer a durable solution either.

This week’s sudden changes in policy also come suspiciously close to the eve of a Human Rights Law Centre constitutional challenge to detention on Nauru.

If by the end of this week these people are no longer being “detained”, then at least part of this challenge might fall away.

Such a pattern is all too familiar.

One might also ask why these people have been detained for years when, it turns out, neither detention nor the drawn-out processing were necessary.

While nothing much might have happened on the ground, and while I am yet to be convinced that this suggests any real change in government policy, there are some lessons we can learn from this news.

First, if change is possible on Nauru it is also possible on Manus Island.

While the current high court challenge involves only Nauru, the principles apply also to Manus Island.

The public has heard much less about what is happening on Manus Island recently, not because life there has gotten better, but because it has become harder for anyone to talk to them.

The 936 people we have abandoned on Manus Island now feel, with some justification, that they have been forgotten.

Second, as Nauru embraces “detention-free processing”, Australians should ask why our detention system is going the other way.

In Australia, detention is becoming more draconian, with over 2000 people detained and the average detention time now 412 days.

Remarkably, over 20 per cent of these people have been detained for over 730 days. And all of this is completely unnecessary, because there are many alternatives to detention – alternatives that are more effective, more humane and much, much cheaper.

Lastly, we should remember that the only reason these changes have happened is because people who care have not given up making the case.

Whether it be the over 20,000 people signing a petition to stop sexual abuse on Nauru, the thousands turning out to Light the Dark vigils, heard about sexual abuse on Nauru through the bravery of victims and whistleblowers, and seen the government through the tireless contribution of lawyers and organisations like the Human Rights Law Centre, together we can make change happen.

We are not there yet, but this is no time to give up.