A family of Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar will be allowed to stay in Australia to argue their case against their return to a Nauru detention centre.
The family of five has been living in detention in Brisbane after they were transported from the Pacific island nation to allow the mother Latifar to give birth to baby boy Ferouz earlier this month.
Ferouz's parents fled persecution in Myanmar more than a decade ago and lived for years in a Malaysian refugee camp, before arriving on Christmas Island with their two other young children in September.
Lawyers for the family had sought a court injunction to stop their return to Nauru, which the family feared was imminent.
They said there were real concerns for the health of the diabetic mother and premature Ferouz if the family returned to detention on the tiny island nation.
But in Brisbane on Friday lawyers struck a deal with the government allowing them to stay in Australia until there is a hearing for "procedural fairness".
The government also agreed to give the family two days' notice if it intended to send them back to Nauru, after their case is heard.
Federal Circuit Court judge Margaret Cassidy recognised the settlement.
Defence lawyer Murray Watt said it was a fair outcome for the family, their sick baby boy and the Australian community.
But he also said it was a time to reflect on the entire practice offshore detention "in conditions that only this week the UN has reported are inhumane".
"I think we can do better than that as Australians," Mr Watt added.
"We have international obligations that require us to do better than that and I now call on the minister and the entire Australian community to think about whether these are the kind of conditions that we think are acceptable for very small children and their families."
Refugee Action Coalition welcomed the deal, but said they had been hoping a legal precedent would have been set.
"...for the minister to be required to give judicial fairness to everyone he intends to send offshore," the organisation's Ian Rintoul told AAP.
The Australian Council of Church Taskforce called for Prime Minister Tony Abbott to release all children from detention while their refugee applications were dealt with.
The group also called for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to release the findings of the investigation he promised into why Latifar was separated from Ferouz while he was in hospital.
Comment has been sought from the federal government.
The court will also need to determine whether baby Ferouz is entitled to Australian citizenship as he was born here.
The case has been adjourned until March 21.
Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/11/29/myanmar-family-to-contest-return-to-nauru/
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