Political prisoners concerned by diplomacy red tape

They've further asked the federal government to better support them and their families, and work to reduce ongoing trauma, saying processes need to change so more Australians don't fall through the cracks.

Dr Turnell was held as a political prisoner by Myanmar's junta while Dr Moore-Gilbert and Ms Cheng were jailed in Iran and China respectively on espionage charges. Professor Greste was detained in Egypt for 14 months on terrorism grounds.

An emotional Ms Cheng choked back tears as she recounted the pain her elderly mother went through looking after her two children, saying state and federal governments needed to better co-ordinate support for families.

"Nobody knew it and everyone suffered as a result," she told a parliamentary hearing on Friday.

Cheng Lei was allowed to return to Australia more than three years after being arrested in China. (HANDOUT/DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE (DFAT))

The former prisoners all argued for the Department of Foreign Affairs not to sideline families and prevent them speaking to media, saying publicity had helped them.

All spoke of how public or international pressure aided their cases, including by sending a warning to their captors that harming or torturing them would spark widespread outrage.

"It protected me when I was in prison from the most egregious human rights abuses," Dr Moore-Gilbert said, adding that the publicity helped restore consular access.

Telling families to remain silent could lead to frustration and risk putting them at odds with diplomats, she said, arguing it was better to work constructively on media engagement and "make sure everyone's on the same page".

Public pressure over Prof Greste's case meant he escaped the worst of what he saw in prison because "the Egyptians were very, very aware of the potential outrage that would flow if we were in any way directly tortured or abused".

The inquiry heard about giving more support to people once they were freed, with Ms Cheng and Dr Turnell receiving four psychosocial sessions and others receiving none.

Peter Greste says public pressure helped limit the severity of his treatment in prison. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

"I was deposited into Australia and basically told 'you're free now, go on your way'," Dr Moore-Gilbert said.

"Unfortunately, there is sometimes a need for real specialised care, particularly for Australian detainees who have been physically tortured."

Helping returned prisoners financially would further help them get back to normality, as it's a struggle to find employment and the imprisonment period greatly impacts families, Dr Turnell said.

Acknowledging he was in a privileged position, he said he wasn't able to find work for two years after his release and "for others, it must be extraordinarily difficult".

He also floated the idea of rewarding people who helped Australian hostages, often at great risk to their safety.

"I had a great many Burmese people who put themselves at incredible risk in supporting me, many of those individuals were punished for that very action," he said.

Concerns remain over the detention of Chinese Australian writer and businessman Yang Hengjun. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

Those forced to flee Myanmar, and many who were refugees in Thailand and elsewhere "would just be ideal recipients for protection visas and the like".

There were also lingering problems in day-to-day life that extended the suffering of detainees, including having to catch up on admin like taxes and needing to declare terrorism or espionage offences when trying to get a visa.

Australia remains concerned for a number of citizens overseas, mostly prominently, writer Yang Hengjun who received a suspended death sentence in China.

High-profile human rights barrister Jennifer Robinson, known for defending Julian Assange, joined the case of Australian Donna Nelson.

The grandmother argues she's the victim of a romance scam after being arrested in Japan for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs.

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