By Elly Bradfield and Tom Kojrowicz

The Federal Government is being called upon to release 13 Indonesian children who have been detained for 10 months in the Northern Territory.

The children are currently detained under suspicion of being involved in people smuggling or illegal fishing.

Lawyers are using a writ of haebus corpus – a legal action where a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention – to force Immigration Minister Chris Bowen before the courts to explain the grounds of the children’s detention.

Professor Mary Crock of the University of Sydney says it is a common legal device used in human rights cases.

“Anybody, anywhere has the right to go to a court to bring an action to say an individual may be being detained without lawful authority,” she said.

Ms Crock hopes this legal move will force politicians to rethink the mandatory detention of children.

“The question is, how is it that we as a country allow people, particularly children, to be locked up for very long periods of time without anybody doing anything about it,” she said.

Dianne Hiles, founder of advocacy group Children Out Of Detention, says she welcomes anything which gets children out of mandatory and indefinite detention.

“This is a very old application of the law,” she said.

“Children should only be detained for the shortest possible time and as a matter of last resort.

“We’re doing this complete opposite here.”