New asylum seekers’ case scheduled for mention

FIVE asylum seekers, who were left out of the National Court’s decision last year when it dismissed 643 claims for damages, were identified and scheduled for mention on Jan 24.
Atom Jabbar, Sumon Sumon, Mustafa Auda, Shahbazi Hossein and Salman Hassan were not in the National Court’s decision on Dec 2 when it dismissed their collective claims against the State and the Australian government.
State lawyer George Akai, from Akia & Associates Lawyers, said Jabbar, Sumon, Auda, Hossein and Hassan were left out of the court’s schedule due to an oversight by the court during proceedings.
“Because of that, the court could not dismiss their matters together with the other 643 matters,” he said.
“We have identified them and requested the court to list them for summary determination, similar to the court decision on Dec 2.”
About 648 asylum seekers had fielded individual court proceedings against former Immigration minister Petrus Thomas and the State in 2019 in breach of their constitutional rights claiming K2 million each.
The asylum seekers had also complained that they were unlawfully detained in Manus.