Australia Court Backs Security Risk Refugee's Visa

Australia's High Court on Friday ruled that an asylum-seeker deemed a security risk can still be granted a refugee visa, in a decision that could have implications for others in similar situations.

The 36-year-old plaintiff, a Sri Lankan known as M47, arrived in Australia in December 2009 and has been held in detention since.

He applied for a protection visa in 2010 and the immigration department found he had a well-founded fear of persecution in Sri Lanka and was therefore a refugee.

But the security services deemed him a risk and denied his application, prompting him to claim the procedure of their assessment had been unfair, while also challenging his continued detention.

The High Court rejected the procedural fairness argument, but ruled that regulations preventing him getting the visa on public interest grounds were invalid because they were at odds with the Migration Act.

The decision could have implications for a group of about 50 people, mostly Sri Lankans, given adverse security assessments and who are being detained indefinitely in Australia.

Lawyer David Manne said M47 had committed no crime, yet had been incarcerated in Australia for almost three years.

"This is a significant victory for our client," he told reporters.

"What should happen now is that the government should urgently process his visa... grant him a refugee visa and grant him his freedom so that he can rebuild his life."

Attorney General Nicola Roxon said the ruling was being studied.

"The government takes both national security and its international obligations to refugees seriously," she said, adding that those considered as security risks were only a very small minority of illegal arrivals.

"The government is carefully reviewing the reasoning of the High Court to determine the implications of the decision."

The Refugee Action Coalition pressure group called for the immediate release of those held in similar circumstances.

"It is a small victory for justice and common sense," the group's spokesman Ian Rintoul said in a statement.

"The High Court has now said that the minister has not had a lawful reason to deny them a visa," he said, referring to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.

Australia is struggling to stop an influx of asylum-seekers arriving by boat and has begun sending them offshore to Nauru in the Pacific, where conditions are basic, as a deterrent.