Asylum seekers in Australia launch high court bid

A group of 10 asylum seekers launched a high court challenge to the legality of Australia federal government's offshore detention system, media reported on Friday.

The asylum seekers belong to different nationalities and are being held offshore but are currently receiving medical treatment in Australia, Radio Australia reported.

The challenge, being run by Melbourne's Human Rights Law Centre on the asylum seekers' behalf, will test whether Australian law allows the country's federal government to hold asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

"The government needs clear legislative authority to detain people," Daniel Webb, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said.

"One of the key questions at the heart of this case is whether any such authority exists under Australian law."

The case will also argue that necessary laws have not been passed to authorise the facilities.

Also of key importance is the A$1.2 billion (about $9 billion) the government pays to contracted companies to run the facilities.

"It is a truly extraordinary thing for the government to be spending billions of dollars indefinitely detaining people in other countries," Webb said.

The government will be asked to give an undertaking not to remove the 10 asylum seekers at the centre of the challenge until the case is decided.

The named respondents in the case are Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, and the Department of Immigration and Transfield Services, which manages the processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island for the government.