Australian court rejects challenge to international travel ban

An Australian court upheld the country’s ban on most international travel on Tuesday when it rejected a libertarian group’s challenge to the government’s power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country.

The Associated Press reports the libertarian group LibertyWorks argued in federal court that Health Minister Greg Hunt did not have the authority to enforce a travel ban. Australia is the sole developed democratic country that currently prevents its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except under “exceptional circumstances.”

LibertyWorks lawyer Jason Potts cited the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty, which Australia ratified, to argue Australians have a right to travel outside of their country.

However, the AP reports that the court’s three judges ruled the argument was based on an “erroneous premise that the right is absolute.”

“It may be accepted that the travel restrictions are harsh. It may also be accepted that they intrude upon individual rights,” the judges ruled. “But Parliament was aware of that.”

Critics of the travel ban have argued that the measure more harshly affects the 30 percent of Australians who were born overseas, the AP notes. However, the Australian government has credited the travel ban as being integral to the country’s relative success in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent survey conducted by an Australian newspaper found that 73 percent of Australians were in favor of keeping borders closed until at least the middle of the year. A survey conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. found 79 percent were in favor of keeping borders closed until the pandemic is fully under control.

“We are very disappointed in the judgement today,” LibertyWorks president Andrew Cooper told the AP. “We continue to believe that the outbound border closure is defective in law and, perhaps more importantly, unjust on human rights grounds. We must remind ourselves also that often things that are legal are not necessarily just.”

He added, “While Europe and most of the world open up their borders, only North Korea and Australia stubbornly continue with strict controls over their citizen’s ability to leave their country.”

Last week the detection of the highly infectious COVID-19 strain B.1.617 that was first found in India forced the Australian city of Melbourne, with a population of more than 7 million, to go into its fourth lockdown. The seven-day lockdown came after the Australian government declared the city to be a hot spot for new infections following a recent surge.

Hunt, the Australian Health Minister, called the lockdown “highly regrettable” but “necessary.”