Peter Dutton Is A Liar, Writes Nauru Rape Victim In Heartbreaking Letter

Last Friday, Abyan – the Somali refugee who was raped on Nauru – was grabbed from her bed at the Villawood detention centre by the Immigration Department and secretly flown on a charted plane (allegedly costing in excess of $100,000) to the Solomon Islands, without receiving the abortion she had begged to come to Australia for.

After the news of her deportation broke, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told 2GB (a notoriously Liberal-friendly station) that the Australian government wouldn’t be “taken for mugs”, and that Abyan had refused the termination and had simply been trying to secure a permanent residency in Australia.

“If people believe that they’re going to somehow try to blackmail us into an outcome to come to Australia by saying we’re not going to have medical assistance – we’re not going to bend to that pressure. I believe very strongly that we need to take a firm stance.”

Both refugee advocates and her lawyer George Newhouse of Shine Lawyers say that Abyan (not her real name), 23, had requested to see a counsellor before having the termination, so that she could give informed consent. They say that she was denied that right.

Abyan has requested to see counsellors and to get advice from doctors to discuss the planned termination of her pregnancy,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “There has been no counselling and no arrangements to see counsellors or doctors.”

Abyan has now confirmed that she never received counselling or even saw a doctor, in an absolutely heartbreaking written statement to Mr. Dutton.

A statement from Abyan

Posted by George Newhouse on Sunday, 18 October 2015

It says:

“I was raped on Nauru. I have been very sick. I have never said that I did not want a termination. I never saw a doctor. I saw a nurse at a clinic but there was no counselling. I saw a nurse at Villawood. But there was no interpreter. I asked but was not allowed to talk with my lawyer. Please help me.

There is now a GetUp! petition to bring Abyan back to Australia, which says: “When Mr Turnbull became Prime Minister he vowed to show “emotional intelligence” as a leader, and to fight against the abuse of women. Yet on his watch, the Australian government has denied a pregnant rape victim to send her back to an island prison in which she has no hope of treatment or support?”

Speaking to the ABC, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has described the situation as “hideous”, and is calling on the Prime Minister to intervene.

“We’ve got very vulnerable refugee women, soon to be mothers, crying out that they don’t want their children born on a prison island. We know that the horrors of treatment and conditions on Nauru, the stories continue to come out every day.”

“We’ve seen doctors and nurses here in Australia this week cry out and say the detention of children is child abuse. If the detention of children is child abuse, then children being born into those conditions is just horrific.”


If you have experienced sexual assault, or this post has triggered anything for you, please call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.



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