In a landmark decision, Australia’s High Court has ruled that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful–overturning a previous decision from 2004.
NZYQ v. Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs & Anor
The case concerned a stateless Rohingya man (referred to as NZYQ) who faced the prospect of lifelong detention as no country would resettle him.
While the government argued that the Al Kateb High Court judgement of 2004–which ruled that the indefinite detention of a stateless man was legal so long as the government intended to eventually remove him–should remain law and justified NZYQ’s ongoing detention, the plaintiff challenged this conclusion. In particular, lawyers held that his detention was a breach of constitutional limits on detention, and that detention was not being used for its intended purpose–the removal of people–but rather, for the purpose of punishing refugees and migrants.