High Court to hear Manus Island Challenges
Monday 7 April 2014 @ 11.52 a.m. | Immigration
The Full Bench of the Australian High Court will hear a landmark case on 9 May 2014 that could end the processing of asylum seekers on Manus Island. The Court has agreed to hear challenges by a plaintiff, known as S156 (a detainee of Manus Island), who is suing the Commonwealth Government for establishing the processing centre and sending him there in contravention of the Australian Constitution.
The former Australian Labor Government reopened the Manus Island regional detention facility in August 2012. The controversial move was made “in unseemly haste” according to written submissions by the plaintiff’s lawyer. The document further accused the then immigration minister, Mr. Chris Bowen, of trading "human suffering on a massive scale and to sentence thousands of people, many of them genuine refugees, for an anticipated decrease in boats emanating from Indonesia".
According to the argument before the High Court presented by barrister Mark Robinson QC, the Commonwealth does not have the constitutional power to send asylum seekers to Manus Island. It is argued that the immigration power provided for the constitution does not give the government the power to move an asylum seeker to a third country upon arrival.
"That was not envisaged by the founding fathers of the constitution” he argued. In the alternative, the plaintiff will argue that the declaration of the regional processing country of Papua New Guinea in October 2012 was invalid.
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