Lawyers for two asylum seekers have told the high court their clients were kept in detention months longer than they should have been. After last year's ruling such detention is illegal. Both men are seeking damages for the extra time they spent in detention, while their visas were being assessed.
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00:00One of the men is from Poland and the other from Vietnam.
00:06Both have criminal records and both have protection findings that if they were to return home
00:13they could face harsh treatment.
00:15For the Vietnamese detainee, that could include the death penalty.
00:20Their lawyers argue that even if their visas were refused, there was no prospect of them
00:25being removed from Australia in the foreseeable future, making their release inevitable.
00:31But the government sought to differentiate the case from last year's decision, which
00:35has seen more than 200 people released from detention.
00:39It argued the ruling related to situations where removal was requested.
00:45The High Court heard that in the current case there had been an absence of a request for
00:50removal and the detention was justified.
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