The asylum seekers say they are Sri Lankan but left from India about a month ago, however Sri Lanka has indicated it will not take them back, and Abbott has said he has no plans to send them there.
The government has acknowledged that another boat, carrying 41 asylum seekers, was handed over to the Sri Lankan navy during an on-water transfer off the coast of Sri Lanka.
In response Gleeson gave an undertaking to the court not to engage in "any actions involving the surrender or delivery to custody of the Sri Lankan military or its delegates" without 72 hours' written notice.
"We welcome the high court of Australia's issuance of an interim injunction against the return of 153 other Sri Lankan asylum seekers, reportedly including 37 children, intercepted by Australian authorities," she said.
"One Sinhalese Sri Lankan woman was recommended for refugee status, but we're told she voluntarily requested to depart [for Sri Lanka] with the others as she didn't want to be left alone.
Researchers working for human rights organisations during this period were so concerned by indications that the Sri Lankan government might be seeking to enlist Fox's support to ease restrictions on arms imports from the UK to the island nation, they raised their worries with the Foreign Office in London.
Torture and other serious human rights abuses are widespread in the custody of Sri Lankan security forces, including the police.
I was thinking about my Italian, Spanish, Polish, Philippine, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Indian, Afghanistani, Chinese, Pakistani and Nigerian colleagues – without whom it is impossible to do a day's shift.
Somehow Sri Lankan managed to win at a canter, despite taking only four wickets.
But as fighting escalated, visitors stopped coming and the hotels were first abandoned, then blown up by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), so the Sri Lankan army couldn't use them.
The detained group, which comprised 37 Sinhalese and four Tamils, appeared before a magistrates court in the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle on Tuesday morning, charged with leaving the country illegally.
