The Australian government's new iron fist approach of refusing entry to boatpeople arriving on its shores was in tatters last night after a court ruled a group of mainly Afghan refugees turned away from Australia two and a half weeks ago have a right to have their asylum applications heard in the country.
The ruling, handed down by the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday afternoon local time, concluded the 433 people rescued from their sinking ferry by the Norwegian freighter Tampa had been detained illegally by the Australian military after SAS men stormed the ship. The court also ruled the refugees were unlawfully denied the opportunity to apply for asylum despite having reached Australian waters.
The ruling is a major blow to the government of the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, as it was widely believed the handling of the Tampa crisis gave it the boost it needed to win the federal election to be held later this year. Indeed, many of Mr Howard's political foes accused him of having manipulated the situation in order to make political gain.
Mr Howard is in the US at present but a spokesman for the acting Prime Minister, Mr John Anderson, yesterday confirmed the government would be appealing the decision. Yesterday's court ruling came after a group of civil rights lawyers 10 days ago challenged the legality of the Prime Minister's handling of the Tampa crisis.
At the time of yesterday's ruling the boatpeople were on board the Australian navy's HMS Manoora sailing to Papua New Guinea. They were to be flown from Papua New Guinea in two groups to New Zealand and the tiny Pacific island of Nauru where they were to have their asylum applications processed after an agreement was reached between the governments of those two countries and the Australian government.
But under yesterday's ruling that "pacific solution plan", as it was dubbed, is now redundant and the refugees will be processed in Australia. The government has until the end of this week to appeal yesterday's judgement.
If they fail to appeal or their appeal is rejected the refugees have to be returned to Australia by 5 p.m. Friday, local time.
The boatpeople were rescued by the Norwegian freighter on Sunday, August 26th, when their own vessel began to sink as they tried to sail from Indonesia to Australia. They had been hoping to reach Australia's Christmas Island to apply for asylum.
But they were refused entry to Australia by Mr Howard's government and stayed moored off Christmas Island for a week while a solution was found. During that time Australia's refusal to accept the group was condemned by most governments around the world as well as the UN and a host of humanitarian organisations.
It was thought last night the refugees would stay on the Manoora, off Papua New Guinea, where the ship was due to arrive last night, pending the outcome of an appeal.
There are a total of 671 refugees on the Manoora with a second group moved onto the vessel over the weekend after they were intercepted heading for Australia.
