The Australian High Court has handed down an historic ruling which could have huge implications for the State's offshore detention system, which processes asylum seekers at an offshore detention facility on the remote Christmas Island.
The seven judges of the High Court - Australia's most supreme court - reached a unanimous verdict that asylum seekers put through Australia's offshore processing, and who have no right of appeal through the Australian Courts, have been denied fair procedures.
The case concerned two Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers, who were represented by lawyers working pro bono. The applicants' refugee status applications were rejected. As they arrived by boat and were processed under the offshore system, they did not have a right for that decision to be reviewed. Those who arrive by plane, in contrast, do have a right of appeal if their claim is rejected.
The judgment found that those reviewing refugee determinations were bound to act within Australian law, regardless of the mode of transport they arrived by. It thus affirms the rights of asylum seekers to procedural fairness, judicial review and equal treatment before the law.
The executive director of Melbourne's Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, David Manne, outlined that the decision is a "fundamental challenge to the government's ability to design a system where life and death matters can't be reviewed by an Australian Court".
Please click here to view the judgment.