The fate of a baby born in Australia to asylum seeker parents will be determined by whether, in the eyes of the law, he arrived in the country by sea.
Baby Ferouz was born on November 6 last year at Brisbane's Mater Hospital after his pregnant mother, Latifar, was transferred from a detention centre on Nauru.
The 11-month-old's family, from the persecuted Rohingya minority, had arrived on Christmas Island from Myanmar (Burma) three months earlier.
The federal government rejected Ferouz's refugee application on the grounds he's an unauthorised maritime arrival.
Laws introduced last year meant asylum seekers who arrived by boat after July 19 were denied the right to claim protection visas.
The Federal Court heard an application in Brisbane on Tuesday to overturn the decision that Ferouz's visa application was invalid.
Judge Michael Jarrett will hand down his decision on Wednesday.
Although the case could have implications for about 100 other babies in detention, it could also prove fruitless.
Amendments to the Migration Act, yet to pass through the Senate, would retrospectively see all babies born to asylum seekers who arrived by boat to be unlawful maritime arrivals, regardless of whether they were born in Australia.
The argument on Tuesday centred around what Ferouz's legal standing was when he "entered the country" by being born.
Barrister Walter Sofronoff, for baby Ferouz, told the court: "The applicant was born here and did not actually arrive by sea."
But Geoffrey Johnson SC, representing the Department of Immigration, argued Ferouz automatically attained the same status as his parents.
"If a child is born in Australia, his parents are not citizens and do not have a visa, then the child is an unlawful non-citizen," Mr Johnson said.
Outside court, Maurice Blackburn senior associate Murray Watt, whose firm is representing Ferouz, said the government had a duty to protect someone born in the country.
"This is an absolutely absurd decision given this boy was born in Brisbane's very own Mater Hospital," he told reporters.
"That's the hospital I was born in, that's the hospital both of my children were born in."
Mr Watts said his firm was also applying for citizenship for Ferouz, given he was considered stateless because the Myanmar government didn't recognise the Rohingya people as citizens.
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