CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A court ruling has opened the way for thousands of refugees to appeal deportation orders and could increase the flow of boat people arriving in Australia.
The seven judges of the High Court of Australia were unanimous in their decision that two Sri Lankan Tamil men who arrived by boat in October 2009 were denied "procedural fairness".
"Because these inquiries prolonged the detention of the plaintiffs, there was a direct impact on the rights and interests of the plaintiffs to freedom from detention at the behest of the executive," the judgment said.
The men claimed refugee status because they said they fear persecution from the Sri Lankan army, government agents and paramilitary groups. They allegedly supported the outlawed Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam, a separatist group that for decades, until a recent peace process, had been fighting a bloody war with the government.
The Australian court found the government had erred in not regarding the asylum seekers as being bound by the Migration Act and decisions of Australian courts and they were denied the right of appeal against their deportation orders.
UPI
