Al-Kateb v Godwin, was a decision of the High Court of Australia, which ruled on 6 August 2004 that the indefinite detention of a stateless person was lawful. The case concerned a Palestinian man born in Kuwait, who moved to Australia in 2000 and applied for a temporary protection visa. The Commonwealth Minister for Immigration’s decision to refuse the application was upheld by the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Court. The controversy surrounding the outcome of the case resulted in a review of the circumstances of twenty-four stateless people in immigration detention.
About Al-Kateb v Godwin in brief
Al-Kateb v Godwin, was a decision of the High Court of Australia, which ruled on 6 August 2004 that the indefinite detention of a stateless person was lawful. The case concerned a Palestinian man born in Kuwait, who moved to Australia in 2000 and applied for a temporary protection visa. The Commonwealth Minister for Immigration’s decision to refuse the application was upheld by the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Court. The controversy surrounding the outcome of the case resulted in a review of the circumstances of twenty-four stateless people in immigration detention. The detention of non-citizens by the Executive pursuant to ss 189, 196 and 198 did notcontravene Ch III of the Commonwealth Constitution, even if the removal of the non-citizen from Australia was not reasonably practicable in the foreseeable future, the court ruled. The appeal was removed into the High court at the request of the then Attorney-General of Australia Daryl Williams, under provisions of the Judiciary Act of 1903. The other cases which also concerned immigration detention were argued alongside two cases and hearings were held on 12 November and 13 November 2003. The question in the case was whether the detention was lawful and if so, whether this was permissible under the Constitution of Australia. The first named respondent, Philippa Godwin was Deputy Secretary of the Legal Services Commission of South Australia, and was represented by Claire O’Connor, Deputy Secretary for Legal Services. The second named respondent was David Bennett, Solicitor-General for Australia, David Bennett and David Bennett was the first respondent for the Stateless People’s Legal Services Association of Australia (SLCA).
The case was heard in the Federal Court of Australia, where the decision was made to release Akram Al Masri on bridging visas in October 2007. Al- Kateb was released in April 2003, by an loclocloc order of the Federal Court of Appeal, and he was granted a permanent visa in October 2007. He was also granted a bridging visa in 2005 and while this meant they were released from detention, they were unable to work, study or obtain various government benefits. In January 2001, Al-KateB applied for a protection visa, on the grounds that the United Nations 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons obliged Australia to protect him. His application was rejected, a decision upheld by the Refugee Tribunal and the Federal court. In June 2002, he stated that he wished to voluntarily leave Australia and be sent to Kuwait or to Gaza. However, attempts by the Government of Australia to remove him to Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and the Palestinian territories failed. A majority of the court decided that the Migration Act did allow indefinite detention, and that the Act was not unconstitutional. In October 2007, a case with substantially identical facts, decided twelve days later by a Full Court of the federal Court, resulted in the release of another detainee, Akram Al Masri.
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