The case has been brought on behalf of a pregnant Bangladeshi asylum seeker, who was brought to Australia from Nauru because of serious health complications and is now being forcibly returned with her infant child.
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Activists say the government does not have the right to send the detainees back to the camps.
Human Rights advocates are also critical.
“Australia should not be indefinitely warehousing anyone on remote islands, especially babies”.
LAWYERS for the Australian Government have argued in the High Court that asylum seekers on Nauru are no longer trapped in detention since changes this week to make the centre “open”.
If the challenge is successful, it could have broader implications for future offshore processing.
What is beyond dispute is that absorbing all these asylum seekers in the Nauruan community would place incredible strain on the tiny island that is home to only 10,000 people and which has become heavily reliant on the detention centre for employment and revenue.
Guardian Australia spoke to several of the men held in detention on Manus Island.
Human rights groups and the United Nations have denounced the facilities as cruel, inhumane and unlawful.
There is an epidemic of sexual violence on Nauru.
“We have done that over a drawn out stretch of time.” Instead, these individuals are sent to “processing centers”, i.e. detention centers belted with barbed wire, in third countries.
Protesters at a rally supporting refugees in Sydney, Australia, last month. It also called for allegations of rape, abuse and mistreatment to be independently investigated. After that, it remained closed for five years and was reopened in 2012. She and her friend were both sexually assaulted but they say the police took four hours to come.
Asylum seekers have always been a contentious political issue in Australia, although it has never received anywhere near the number of refugees now flooding into Europe from the Middle East and North Africa.
To put it in context, as a proportion of the population, it would be equivalent to Australia absorbing more than 2 million asylum seekers.
Attorneys representing the 23-year-old Somali displaced person affirm her pregnancy was the outcome of a “horrendous” rape in July and she is attempting to reach Australia to get a fetus removal.
Australia’s top court is meanwhile reviewing the legality of the offshore camps housing Australia-bound asylum seekers.
It’s believed any resettlement deal, which still requires the approval of Philippine president Benigno Aquino, would be similar to the Australia’s $55m deal with Cambodia to resettle refugees held on Nauru.
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Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed on Friday that refugees who travelled to Australia by boat could be permanently resettled in the Philippines under a deal being negotiated by the government. The Australian newspaper, which earlier reported news of the discussions, said it could cost Australia more than 150 million Australian dollars, or $108 million, citing unidentified government officials.
