Asylum seekers detained on ship transferred
A group of asylum seekers being detained on a Customs ship is being transferred to the Australian mainland. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the 157 men, women and children are being transferred to Cocos Islands, and from there will be flown to the Curtin detention centre in remote Western Australia.
The report says the boat carrying the group left India early last month and was intercepted by an Australian vessel nearly four weeks ago.
Since then the asylum seekers have been held on board the Customs ship at an unknown location, while their legal status is determined.
Their case is set to be heard by the full bench of the High Court in Canberra next month.
ABC adds that lawyers for one of the asylum seekers are seeking a court order preventing the Federal Government from sending the asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, Nauru, or Papua New Guinea. Instead, the group wants to be sent to Australia or another country that “has assumed the international law non-refoulement obligations”.
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