Australian judge backs Canberra's hard line on immigration
Court rules baby born to asylum seekers in Australia is unlawful arrival and denies visa
A baby born in Australia to asylum seekers is not entitled to refugee status, a judge has ruled, in a case which advocates said will affect scores more children.
Baby boy Ferouz was born in Brisbane's Mater Hospital last year after his mother, from Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority, was transferred to Australia from the Pacific state of Nauru due to concerns about her pregnancy.
Since July 2013 Australia has denied asylum seekers arriving by boat resettlement in the country, sending them instead to camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The government considers Ferouz an unlawful maritime arrival like his parents, and has already denied him a protection visa.
Federal Court Judge Michael Jarrett agreed, ruling that despite the circumstances of his birth, Ferouz was legally an "unauthorised maritime arrival".
"On the applicant's birth he entered Australia and became an 'unlawful non-citizen', given that neither of his parents held a valid visa," he said in his judgment.