Solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue labelled assertions that the Commonwealth had failed to remove ASF17 to a third country as "perplexing".
"We actually did try to find somewhere else, but unsurprisingly for a citizen of Iran, who can be returned to Iran, we couldn’t find any," he told the court on Wednesday.
Given ASF17 is not a refugee, Australia is not obliged to seek third-country resettlement options. However, Australia also has a policy of not returning citizens to countries that do not accept forcible removals, like Iran.