AUSTRALIA’S highest court has thrown out a challenge to the lawfulness of the country’s offshore detention of asylum seekers.

The case was taken to the High Court by the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of asylum seekers who had been transferred to Australia for medical treatment or to give birth.

It argued that offshore detention infringed constitutional limits on power, and that there was no law that gave the Australian government the power to facilitate offshore arrangements.

But in the court’s decision announced by a full bench yesterday, the High Court found that the federal government’s conduct was authorised by both the law and the Australian Constitution.

The judgement opens the way for Canberra to send more than 260 asylum seekers — including babies who were born in Australia — back to their camps in either Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

Reintroduced in 2013, the offshore detention regime is supported by both of Australia’s main political parties, but has been widely condemned by human rights groups and the UN.