''O'Keefe v Calwell''
is a
High Court of Australia case.
Annie O'Keefe was a
Dutch subject born in the
Netherlands East Indies and one of 15,000 people who were evacuated to Australia from nearby countries during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and given sanctuary. She arrived in Australia in September 1942 and settled in the outer
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
community of Bonbeach, Victoria, Bonbeach. She married an Australian, believing that the marriage would also allow her remain, but the government issued a deportation order for Annie and the children in January 1949. Public support allowed her to challenge the deportation order.
The High Court ruled in favour of O'Keefe. This was because she had not formally been given the status of a prohibited immigrant when she was allowed to enter Australia with a certificate of exemption, so the expiration of the certificate did not make her liable to deportation as a prohibited immigrant. Nor could she be declared a prohibited immigrant more than five years after being allowed into the country. The case proved the Aliens Deportation Act 1948 a failure, leading the Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell to push forward with the War-time Refugees Removal Act 1949.
The action in the High Court was the first successful legal challenge to the White Australia Policy.
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References
High Court of Australia cases
1949 in Australian law
Visa policy of Australia
Australian migration law
Immigration case law
White Australia policy
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