Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will seek to launch a High Court appeal against an asylum seeker test case that left the government exposed to a string of multi-million dollar compensation claims.

The dispute centres on the strategy used by refugee lawyers to have asylum seekers transferred for medical treatment before the so-called "medevac" bill – which the government is pushing to repeal – was enacted.

Peter Dutton has launched a High Court appeal against an asylum seeker test case. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Lawyers filed claims on behalf of 52 asylum seekers and refugees in the Federal Court under the common law of negligence, then sought urgent injunctions for patients to be transferred from Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Earlier this month, the Full Federal Court of Australia rejected the Home Affairs department's argument that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the claims, as long as the applications did not specifically demand a transfer to Australia.