Australia’s court rules refugee policy legal

Australia’s High Court has paved the way for the government in Canberra to send hundreds of refugees who had been transferred to the country from detention camps in remote islands for medical purposes back to the refugee detention sites.

According to Press TV, the High Court on Wednesday rejected a legal test case brought by the Human Rights Law Center (HRLC) against the government over its policy of returning the refugees who had been sent to Australia for medical care to the migration detention camps in the tiny island of Nauru.

The rights group had brought the case on behalf of 260 people, including 37 babies born in Australia and 54 other children, who had been transported to Australia for medical care.

Among the cases is that of an unnamed Bangladeshi woman who was detained in October 2013 and sent to Nauru, but was transferred to Australia for urgent medical treatment during her pregnancy. She gave birth to a girl in 2014 and remained there with her child.

Her lawyers sought a declaration that sending her to Nauru had been unlawful. They also argued that it was illegal for Australia to pay for offshore detention in a third country.

The court, however, ruled that the government’s role in funding and participating in offshore detention does not breach law.

ME