Commonwealth of Australia v. AJL20

Catchwords

Constitutional law – Chapter III – Immigration detention – Where second respondent citizen of Syria and granted visa in 2005 – Where Minister for Immigration and Border Protection cancelled visa on character grounds in 2014 under s 501(2) Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (“Act”) – Where second respondent detained by officer of Commonwealth from 8 October 2014 under s 189(1) of Act – Where Minister accepted Australia has non-refoulement obligations to second respondent – Where Minister refused to grant protection visa and declined to consider granting visa under s 195A of Act on 25 July 2019 – Where detention of unlawful non-citizen lawful if for permissible purpose – Where removal from Australia permissible purpose – Where, from 26 July 2019, officer of Commonwealth obliged to remove second respondent from Australia “as soon as reasonably practicable” under s 198 of Act – Where primary judge held detention unlawful since 26 July 2019 and ordered second respondent be released from detention – Whether second respondent’s removal from Australia “reasonably practicable” – Whether second respondent’s detention for purpose of removal from Australia – Whether second respondent’s detention lawful – Whether ss 189 and 196 require detention of unlawful non-citizen until removal from Australia despite non-compliance with duty of removal consistently with Ch III of Constitution.  

Torts – False imprisonment – Whether second respondent falsely imprisoned.