The High Court judges unanimously held that a person must be released from immigration detention where there is no real prospect of them being deported in the foreseeable future.
Researchers have mapped the hotels known to be used for immigration detention across Australia, creating the first coast-to-coast visualisation of a practice that has operated largely in the shadows for two decades.
That no Australian government in almost a decade has successfully brought this policy to a formal close is astonishing. In fact, Australia ceased transferring new arrivals offshore in 2014.
This case is important because it represents a rare litigation win for an asylum seeker. He doesn't automatically get the right to stay in Australia, but he's won damages — and that's unusual.
