Asylum seekers launch High Court challenge over Australia

A group of refugees in Australia has launched a challenge in Australia's highest court regarding the Australian government's offshore detention system, local media reported Friday.

The challenge, run by Melbourne's Human Rights Law Center on the asylum seekers' behalf, will test whether Australian law allows the government to maintain its refugee processing centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Any person who enters Australian waters without a visa is detained in offshore centers where refugee claims are processed. Australia has also annoyed consecutive Indonesian administrations by turning boats back to Indonesian waters.

The director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centers, Daniel Webb, said the case involves asylum seekers held offshore but currently receiving treatment in Australia.

"We're helping a very vulnerable group of people," Webb told Australian Associated Press on Friday. "They've all described conditions inside the center as abhorrent. Their time on Nauru has clearly taken a toll on them and on their children."

The Australian government remains secretive in regards to the border protection operations, including the detention centers, and defends its lack of transparency on the issue as being in the interest of national security.

Webb said the case raised questions about whether the government had the clear authority to detain people in other sovereign nations.

He said the deal whereby 960 million U.S. dollars was paid by the government to the contracted companies that run the facilities would be tested..

"The question is whether the government has the authority to then lock them up indefinitely in territories of other sovereign nations or to effectively procure that detention," he said.

However, according to experts, the bid will struggle to be successful as the federal government holds power over alien immigration and hold broad powers over external affairs. Endi