Paul Cutler's Migration Case Law Blog

Indefinite Detention

Indefinite detention typically arises in circumstances where a person is held in immigration detention and it is not possible to remove them from Australia. In recent years a number of applicants who have alleged indefinite detention have had mixed success in obtaining writs of habeus corpus for their release (see for example my post about ALJ20). Those applications had to grapple with Al-Kateb...

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Remitted

You may remember that the High Court remitted QYFM to a differently constituted Full Federal Court after it found that Justice Bromich should have recused himself. I have previously blogged about the recusal decision. When the matter arrived back in the Full Court the original grounds of appeal were "jettisoned" and leave was sought to rely on six new ones. The appellant was also granted leave...

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Section 48A Bar

Is there a section 48A bar arising from the following facts: The Applicant applied for a protection visa in 2013; The application was refused in 2014; In September 2017, the AAT affirmed the delegate's decision;  On 12 September 2017 (the day following the AAT decision) the Assistance Minister used the power in s417(1) to grant a three month visitor visa with a no further stay condition on it;...

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A matter

Even those of us who didn't do very well at constitutional law know that having a matter is a pre-requisite for federal jurisdiction. In AZC20 v Minister [2023] HCA 26 the High Court found that there had been no matter before the Full Federal Court. The facts The facts of AZC20 (which are a bit complicated and involve several sets of proceedings and appeals) were that: AZC20 is an Iranian...

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Double counting

Giving weight to the serious of offending is important in character cancellation matters but double counting is easy to do and not permissible. Mr Jama was a NZ citizen who arrived in Australia as a 17 year old in 2008. His visa was cancelled in 2019 after a conviction for aggravated armed robbery. Needless to say his 444 visa was cancelled. Clearly the seriousness of his offending and how it...

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