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Baby Ferouz lawyers lobby PUP, Lambie as court reserves asylum decision

Lawyers for a baby born in Australia to asylum seeker parents are lobbying Palmer United Party (PUP) senators and newly independent MP Jacqui Lambie to help secure his asylum.

The Federal Court is deciding whether to grant one-year-old Ferouz Myuddin a protection visa and allow him to remain in Australia.

Ferouz was born in Brisbane's Mater Hospital after his mother was transferred from the detention centre on Nauru due to concerns about her pregnancy.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison denied the infant a protection visa, saying Ferouz was an unauthorised maritime arrival, and last month the Federal Circuit Court agreed with that decision.

Lawyers representing Ferouz' family lodged an appeal, which was heard by the full bench of the Federal Court today.

It reserved a decision to a date yet to be fixed.

The decision will have implications for the 106 babies born in Australia who could be sent to Nauru.

Despite efforts by Ferouz' lawyers, the test case could actually prove fruitless.

Amendments to the Migration Act, yet to pass the Senate, would retrospectively see all babies born to asylum seekers who arrived by boat to be unlawful maritime arrivals, regardless of whether they were born in Australia.

Lawyers lobby PUP over Migration Act changes

Ferouz's lawyer, Murray Watt, said the laws were designed to scuttle the case.

He had been lobbying the PUP and all cross-bench senators to block the legislation.

"We've been calling on the Senate to block these amendments; they don't represent a fair go they don't represent the best of Australian traditions in welcoming people from terrible circumstances overseas to our country," he said.

"We are very hopeful that the Senate will block these amendments when the time comes to vote on them.

"The fate of all these babies lies in the hands of the Senate."

The family, including Ferouz's mother, Latifar, and his father and two siblings, arrived on Christmas Island from Myanmar three months before Ferouz's birth in September 2013.

They were fleeing persecution as minority Rohingyas in Myanmar.

The family are currently in detention in Darwin, where Ferouz had his first birthday.