The Refugee Council of Australia has welcomed the High Court ruling on Australia’s offshore refugee status assessment process as a long-awaited and critical step towards a fairer and more rigorous system. The High Court ruled that two Sri Lankan asylum seekers were denied procedural fairness in the review of their claims under the processing arrangements which apply to asylum seekers who enter Australia through excised offshore territory. In a unanimous decision, the High Court ruled that any review of a refugee status assessment must be bound by the provisions of the Migration Act and the decisions of Australian courts. The main impact of this decision is to put all people seeking asylum in Australia on an equal footing. Both the mainland and offshore asylum processes will now be subject to judicial review in situations where an error in legal reasoning has occurred or where procedural fairness has been denied. Read the High Court judgement here.  RCOA’s media release on the judgement can be found here.

Source: Refugee Council of Australia Bulletin