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Court rejects Save the Children’s repatriation bid
The Federal Court has rejected a bid to have 11 women and their 20 children repatriated from northern Syria detention camps.
Naomi Neilson
Save the Children Australia failed to convince the court and Justice Mark Moshinsky that the Commonwealth has sufficient power and control to have the 31 people released and returned to Australia.
But on Friday (3 November), Justice Moshinsky dismissed the application.
“The court has concluded that the respondents do not have control over the detention of the relevant women and children.
“Accordingly, the court has decided that a writ of habeas corpus should not [be] issue[d],” Justice Moshinsky’s summary read.
In the alternative, Save the Children applied for a judicial review over what they claimed was a non-decision by the Commonwealth not to seek the return of the women and children.
However, Justice Moshinsky concluded the court “was not satisfied that there is any such requirement” and rejected the application.
During the hearing, counsel for Save the Children, Peter Morrissey, said the women and children had been languishing in “poor conditions” inside the al-Roj camp and require urgent assistance.
The group are being detained by the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
AANES and SDF are supported by the Global Coalition against Daesh/ISIS, which includes the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
Mr Morrissey said all are citizens of Australia and have not been charged with a crime, meaning they are held without a lawful basis.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
