High Court challenge could be first of many

THE High Court could be swamped by challenges from asylum-seekers in the wake of a case brought by a family fleeing persecution in Iran.

Asylum-seekers

THE High Court could be swamped by challenges from asylum-seekers awaiting deportation from Australia in the wake of a case brought by a family fleeing persecution in Iran.

This week an ethnic Kurd and her four-year-old son detained on Christmas Island, filed a constitutional challenge in the High Court in a bid to be reunited with the woman's husband, who arrived in Australia 18 months ago and was found to be a genuine refugee.

The woman's husband is still being held in Melbourne's Maribyrnong detention centre with final checks not yet completed but he will be released in the coming months.

The woman and the couple's son, who have been told they will be deported to Malaysia, are challenging the legality of the decision to remove them from a country that has already accepted another family member as a legitimate refugee.

Refugee lawyer David Manne, executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said the couple and their child should be "processed as a family".

"It's essential that they be allowed to be kept together as a family unit.

"They (the woman and child) are being deported to a country where it is widely known that refugees are subject to harm," Mr Manne said.

The Weekend Australian has been told by immigration officials that further High Court challenges are imminent from among the 274 men, women and children who are on Christmas Island pending deportation.

"We are actually surprised it (a High Court challenge) took this long," one said.

The detainees on the island have not been provided with lawyers but they have internet access and can buy credit for communal phones using points given to them each week.

"Now they know the name of a lawyer who is willing to help," one detention centre worker said.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen yesterday refused to comment specifically on the court matter of the Kurdish couple and their child.