Nauru's highest court could be forced to decide whether the indefinite detention of asylum seekers breaches the island nation's constitution after legal action was launched in Australia's High Court.



Lawyers representing a Pakistani asylum seeker, who is still on Nauru, say his detention there has denied him "the most basic human right" and resulted in an unfair hearing on his refugee status.



If the action succeeds, Nauru's Supreme Court would be forced to abandon its refusal to hear his constitutional challenge and decide if more than 450 asylum seekers can remain in the Nauru centre.

The case could also pave the way for hundreds of refugees now living outside the centre to claim compensation from the Australian government for false imprisonment.

Papua New Guinea has announced it will close its centre on Manus Island after a similar constitutional challenge succeeded in PNG's highest court in April.

The Nauruan government maintains that it no longer detains asylum seekers, after it last year declared its offshore processing centre an "open centre" and said they were allowed to move freely around the island.