The Australian government could face hundreds of false imprisonment claims after the country’s High Court ruled that it was unlawful to indefinitely hold a person in immigration detention.
The Canberra government says the High Court ruling could allow the release of about 100 people held by Australia in immigration detention who cannot return to their home countries. About nine detainees are deemed to be stateless, while others cannot be deported because of fears of persecution at home.
The decision overturns a 20-year-old Australian legal precedent that had asserted that the indefinite detention of non-citizens was lawful.
The case heard Wednesday involved a stateless Rohingya man who faced the prospect of lifelong detention in Australia since no country would resettle him because of a criminal conviction in Australia for child sexual offenses.
The Australian government had insisted his detention was lawful because it planned to expel him from the country, despite its inability to do so. Several countries, including the United States, Britain and New Zealand, had refused to accept the detainee, but the government in Canberra has stressed that resettlement in the U.S. would be an option.
Judges ordered the man, known as NZYQ, be released immediately.
His case was supported by the Human Rights Law Center, an independent advocacy organization.
Its acting managing lawyer, Josephine Langbien, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Thursday that the court’s decision will have widespread ramifications.
“This is a hugely significant decision which will have life-changing consequences for people who have been detained for years without knowing when, or even if, they will ever be released,” she said.
Australia’s solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, one of the country’s most senior legal officials, told local media that the ruling could trigger compensation claims from detainees and that “undesirables” could be released into the community. Donaghue said NZYQ had been detained because “he raped a 10-year-old boy” but that his incarceration was not punitive because he was being held until he could be deported.
Immigration is an intrinsic part of multicultural Australia. More than a quarter of the population was born overseas, but strict border policies have been popular with voters.
Both major parties have supported a decade-old immigration policy called Operation Sovereign Borders that sends the navy to tow or turn away migrant boats trying to reach Australian waters.
The policy has been condemned by rights groups.
