(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The High Court has ruled the Australian government does have the power to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea.
Lawyers for an Iranian asylum seeker have argued processing asylum seekers on Manus Island is not constitutionally valid.
But as Thea Cowie reports, the High Court has thrown out the case in a unanimous ruling.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
The Iranian plaintiff, aged in his late 20s, came to Australia by boat in July last year, landing first on Christmas Island.
His lawyer, senior counsel Mark Robinson, says the asylum seeker, known as S-156, would be told of the High Court ruling by email, the primary mode of communication on the island.
Mr Robinson predicted the news would be devastating.
"He's a very determined man, and he's been suffering significantly in Papua New Guinea. It's not a pleasant environment for refugee applicants, and it's affected him mentally and physically. He's not really enjoying it there at all."
Mr Robinson says the asylum seeker is from Iran, where he was a member of a minority religious group.
He says the man has a well-founded fear of persection from the larger religious groups in the country.
In the High Court, Mr Robinson argued against the man's detention, saying former Labor Immigration Minister Chris Bowen illegally designated Manus Island a processing centre.
The lawyer also cited United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees advice that there were "several crucial challenges" that made the country "not fully appropriate" for processing.
The Commissioner also advised that Papua New Guinea had no legal framework to address refugee issues and was not fully committed to the United Nations Refugee Convention.
He cited the country's reservations in regard to seven sections of the convention which relate to the social, economic and political rights of refugees.
Mr Robinson says the High Court decision is disappointing.
"It means that he's lawfully in Papua New Guinea and it's valid on the basis of the Commonwealth Constitution. It's also valid on the basis of the Minister's decision to send him to Papua New Guinea and his decision to declare Papua New Guinea a regional processing country. It's now certain that it's valid for Australia to send its refugee applicants who come by boat to a foreign country and to effectively keep them there. I find it very disappointing because we believed that at least some aspects of it are invalid."
If the case against the government had been successful, it would have forced the detention centre's closure.
That potentially would have thrown the Abbott Government's offshore processing and resettlement policy into disarray.
But speaking before the High Court decision, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told the ABC he was not worried.
"(I) won't speculate on things about what the court is going to say or not say, but I can assure you the Government has contingencies in place."
The news comes a day after the Labor caucus rejected a motion for the party to withdraw support for the Manus and Nauru detention centres.
Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles says Labor's position on offshore processing is consistent.
"Labor has been supporting offshore processing and will continue to do that, because this is a policy which saves lives at sea. We will be a party which deals with this in our good conscience to make sure we do everything we can to save lives at sea."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is quick to point out the ruling comes a thousand days after the former Labor government's Malaysia solution was scuttled in parliament.
"This is 1,000 days since the Liberals combined with the Greens to defeat the Malaysia regional-processing settlement. It's a thousand days today. There is some irony in the High Court making a decision about some of the aspects of Manus Island today. I just wish that the current Government, then the opposition, hadn't been so negative to combine with the Greens to defeat the Malaysian regional solution."
In August 2011, the High Court ruled the Gillard Government could not send refugees to Malaysia for processing because the country had no laws to ensure the asylum seekers' safety.
Greens MP Adam Bandt says the Government should stop looking overseas for solutions.
"What is clear is that indefinite mandatory detention ruins lives. And the Greens have been saying that for some time, mental-health experts have been saying that for some time. There's a humane, practical and compassionate alternative, and that is to process people in the community, onshore."
There was one element of the Iranian asylum seeker's case the High Court did not rule on, sending it instead to the Federal Magistrate's Court for a later date.
That matter relates to the decision to send the man to Manus Island instead of Nauru.
Mr Robinson says lawyers will argue there were only a couple of tents and not enough beds on Manus Island when the Iranian man was sent there.
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