Australia’s High Court ruled yesterday that the government had acted legally when it held 157 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers at sea for almost a month.

The 157 Tamil men, women and children sailed from Pondicherry, India, last year, fleeing violence and discrimination in Sri Lanka.

Their boat was intercepted in June and they remained trapped onboard for weeks before being transferred to the remote Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia.

They were later transferred to Australia’s notorious island holding camp of Nauru, where they are still trapped.

One of the trapped Sri Lankans claimed damages for false imprisonment. During the weeks they spent on the vessel they had been effectively incarcerated — only being allowed on deck for short periods and restricted to “limited hours of daylight.”

Lawyers had also hoped a favourable ruling would challenge the legality of Australia’s draconian immigration policy, which involves turning back asylum-seekers attempting to reach its shores by boat and sending them to Indonesia.

But judges voted 4-3 that the government had acted within its rights. None of the asylum-seekers has a right to compensation, they decided.

Human Rights Law Centre’s Hugh de Krester said it was “disappointing.”

He said without the case “the Australian public may never have known what happened to those 157 people” including 50 children as young as one.