16 October 2014 11:43 am
The Australian Federal Government has said it acted lawfully when detaining 157 asylum seekers on board a Customs boat for a month, telling the Canberra High Court that India was an ‘obvious place’ to send them back.
In the High Court in Canberra, the General-Solicitor Justin Gleeson said the decision to intercept the boat carrying the 157 asylum seekers had come from the National Security Committee of Cabinet, of which Immigration Minister Scott Morrison was a member. Mr Gleeson said India was an "obvious place" to return the Sri Lankan Tamils, given the asylum seekers could not be returned to Sri Lanka for fear of being persecution and they had departed from Pondicherry in India, despite the boat being only 16 nautical miles from Christmas Island.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the asylum seeker CPCF, who was on board carrying 157 asylum seekers, said the government was deliberately ignoring international human rights.