Asylum seekers appeal to high court against order to send them to Nauru
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Version 0 of 1. A group of 10 asylum seekers has launched a high court bid to challenge the federal government’s decision to send them back to Nauru. The director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, Daniel Webb, said the case, launched on Thursday, involved asylum seekers with serious medical issues and families with young children, including a newborn. They have been temporarily allowed into Australia but face imminent removal back to Nauru, where they would be returned to the island’s detention centre. “We’re helping a very vulnerable group of people,” Webb said. “They’ve all described conditions inside the centre as abhorrent. “Their time on Nauru has clearly taken a toll on them and on their children.” Webb said the case raised untested legal questions over the government’s power to detain asylum seekers offshore and use taxpayer funds for that purpose. He told the ABC the case struck at the core of the entire offshore detention system. “The question, is does the government have the power to lock people up offshore or to spend public money to procure that detention? The answers to those questions are going to have implications beyond just the people we represent.” Webb said the first step in the case was to seek undertakings from the government that it would not return the asylum seekers to “an environment that the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Moss review have all made clear is unsafe and unsuitable for children”. He said the court would then set a time line for considering the substantive issues. A spokeswoman for the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said the government was unperturbed by the case. “The Regional Processing Centres [on Nauru and Manus Island] are an integral part of stopping the boats and the policy is supported by both Liberal and Labor governments,” she said. “The commonwealth is confident of its position and will defend the action.” The legal team also wants the high court to stop the government paying Transfield Services to manage the centres on Nauru and Manus. |