High Court dismisses key challenge to indefinite immigration detention. What does it mean?
- Written by Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney
The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own deportation.
This includes, for example, when a person refuses to apply for travel documents due to a longstanding fear for their life if...

















