During our Right To Refuge campaign, Community Care has fought hard to achieve a fairer deal for asylum seekers. We have had to fight, along with our friends in the voluntary sector and in parliament, on several fronts. We have taken the battle to the government, to policy makers, to the media and to the public. Our campaign has stood up for values that are fundamental to social care: justice, tolerance and protection of the vulnerable. These three principles we will continue to fight for.

Asylum seekers still have much to complain about, but small beacons of hope are becoming visible. Our campaign has called for improved immigration processes, an end to degrading detention, better protection of children, and a more informed debate without the racism and bigotry that have characterised so many of the contributions from politicians, press and public. Some progress was made towards these objectives this week.

While the welcome decision to give 15,000 families caught up in the asylum system leave to remain was taken purely for pragmatic reasons, three important decisions of principle received less attention. First, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes promised measures that will at least partially allay fears about the well-being of asylum seekers' children kept in detention. Details are still scarce, although it is likely that she will seek to plug gaps in the woeful schooling offered to detained children and examine whether they can be allowed to go on organised outings. The measures fall short of the moral imperative to end the detention of these children once and for all but they move in the right direction.

Second, the High Court moved to soften the impact of the infamous section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 by insisting that anyone awaiting the outcome of a court case receive support and accommodation. Since there are around 800 cases pending, the High Court has struck a blow for justice at a time when the government has tried to make that goal more difficult to achieve by slimming down appeals procedures.

Finally, and in one sense closer to home, Community Care has campaigned hard for an end to media hysteria about asylum seekers, particularly the insistence that they take away from our society and add nothing. The Press Complaints Commission's ruling that the press should stop its illogical talk of "illegal asylum seekers" goes a small distance towards this aim.

No historic victory yet then, but three important steps along the way.