21 January 2015, 17:21 GMT
MOSCOW, January 28 (Sputnik) — Australia's High Court ruled on Wednesday that the country's maritime officers acted lawfully when they held more than 150 Sri Lankan refugees on a boat for almost a month.
The court said in a statement that a group of 157 Tamil asylum seekers, including 50 children, were not eligible for compensation from the Australian government, which adopted a batch of controversial amendments to its migration laws last year, giving maritime authorities sweeping new powers.
The refugees were stopped off Australia's Cocos Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, in June 2014. Australian authorities kept them stranded on the high seas and tried to take them back to India, where they had sailed from, but failed because Australia had no agreement allowing such a move. Eventually, the Tamil refugees were brought to the Central Pacific island of Nauru.
Under the new laws, maritime officials can turn away any refugee boat that enters Australia's contiguous zone, which lies beyond its territorial waters. The government can also detain asylum seekers without charge, refuse them protection without an explanation or deport them to any country, including ones that allow torture.
