A bisexual Iranian man,given the pseudonym ASF17,has launched a bid for release from immigration detention,claiming he is being unlawfully held,in a legal sequel to last year’s landmark High Court ruling outlawing indefinite detention that saw more than 150 detainees freed.
The Commonwealth argues his ongoing detention is legal because the detainee could “bring it to an end at any time” by agreeing to meet Iranian authorities for the necessary paperwork to return to Iran.
But his barrister,Lisa De Ferrari,SC,told the court the government had never tried to resettle him anywhere else and that her client did not oppose being removed to a country other than Iran.
“Even take me to Gaza,” De Ferrari quoted her client as saying in evidence aired in a previous Federal Court hearing. “I have a better chance there of not being killed than if I go back to Iran.”
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She said her client was not going to front the Iranian embassy and “lie” that he was voluntarily returning,arguing what the government was asking was the equivalent of being forced to jump from a boat in the middle of the ocean and “swim with the sharks”.
Commonwealth solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue said the government had investigated moving him elsewhere but argued De Ferrari was effectively asking the government to take people to countries where they had no right of residency or long-term stay.