Australians in Uproar After Refugee Was Raped, Then Denied an Abortion

For weeks, the Australian government has been locked in a dispute with human rights lawyers over the case of a pregnant Somali refugee. After escaping her war-torn country, Abyan—not her real name—made it to an Australian offshore detention center, Nauru, the island republic where Australia detains undocumented migrants attempting to reach the country. The 23-year-old alleges she was raped there in July. Then, after ending up pregnant, Abyan was allegedly refused an abortion by the country where she sought asylum, and flown back to the offshore island where she was raped.

Abyan had pleaded with the government to allow her to come to Australia so she can undergo an abortion, which remains severely restricted under Nauru law. Last week, she was finally flown to the Villawood detention center in Sydney to have the procedure, but five days later, she was "secretly" transported back to Nauru five days later on a government-chartered RAAF jet—without undergoing the termination.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton claims that Abyan received extensive medical attention but decided not to have the procedure, saying that "she had decided against the abortion." He told Sky News that her decision followed "four or five days of medical consultations" with "interpreters present, mental health nurses, GPs, doctors."

The young refugee and her legal team dispute this. In a handwritten note released by her lawyer, George Newhouse, Abyan said: "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."

"When she arrived [in Australia] she was unwell, exhausted, and traumatized," said Sally Rugg, an activist with campaigning group GetUp!, which has been working with Abyan's legal team and close advocates on her case. "After a nurse explained the basics of the procedure to her, she asked for more time and to speak to a counselor before having the invasive procedure."

"Because she asked for more time, the government hurried her onto a chartered plane to get her out of the country, just as a temporary injunction was filed by her lawyers to ask that the courts keep her in Australia for her medical treatment."

The Australian government's treatment of Abyan has been described as inhumane and a "profound incomprehension of the situation facing victims of gender-based violence." Others have compared her removal back to Nauru to the CIA's extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects. Gillian Triggs, the president of the Human Rights Commission, told ABC News that it was "extraordinary that [Abyan] was expected to reach a decision in such a short space of time, and when the answer wasn't given immediately she's literally airlifted back to Nauru."

Abyan is not the first female refugee to allege mistreatment on Nauru. An independent review in March found evidence of sexual abuse inside Australia's detention center, including sexual harassment, rape, and the sexual assault of minors. But she is by far the most high-profile case to emerge out of the island. Almost 65,000 people have signed a petition asking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to bring Abyan back to Australia for treatment. Hundreds protested in Sydney outside the Department of Immigration offices on Monday, with more protests planned across the country later this week.

Twenty-five-year-old activist McKenzie Raymond told Broadly that she attended the Sydney protest to show her support for Abyan and "those fighting for asylum seekers and refugees."

"I don't have much faith in our government, but for some reason, I really wasn't expecting such disgusting, inhumane treatment of Abyan," she added. "I am so upset that anybody in power would think this is okay, that this is fair."

"Most Australians are aghast," said Georgina Dent, a journalist who has extensively covered Abyan's case for Mamamia. "Even highly conservative commentators who are otherwise supportive of Australia's treatment of refugees recognized this as a situation where Australia needs to intervene. What sort of nation would condemn a 23-year-old refugee to carry a child that was conceived through rape? It is difficult to assess the facts as we know them to be and not conclude this is an individual in need of compassion and assistance."

Peter Dutton has since indicated that Abyan may still be allowed into Australia for the abortion, but time is running out for the Somali woman. She is already 15 weeks pregnant and has already been returned to Nauru, where abortion is illegal unless the mother's life or health is at risk. Women who undergo terminations on Nauru face a jail term of seven years with hard labor—a penalty that extends to the refugees that Australia detains on the island.

"In refugee camps or detention centers, access to sexual and reproductive health care is a basic human right that should be afforded to all," a spokesperson from the reproductive health charity Marie Stopes International told Broadly. "Access to contraception and safe abortion is just as important for displaced people and should be a priority."

On Tuesday, Abyan told a journalist from the Australian: "Yes, I still want an abortion. But I don't want Australia, I want to go to another country." She confirmed that she had never turned down the termination in Sydney, adding: "I was physically and mentally sick, and I wanted to make sure I could make my health good first. I did not say 'no.'"

"She's very distressed and concerned about what's happening," said Kon Karapanagiotidis, the founder and CEO of Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), the advocacy organization that has worked directly with Abyan and other female refugees on Nauru. He told Broadly that ASRC had been in touch with Abyan since she was flown back to the island.

"This is a critical women's rights issue. [The Australian government has] taken a woman in our care and deliberately engaged in what you can only call rendition to get her away from our courts and adequate medical care to send her back to a country where she cannot get an abortion."

"What is so devastating is that we have a woman fleeing one of the most dangerous countries on earth—Somalia—and came to what she thought was going to be the safest country on earth—Australia—only for us to send her to somewhere as dangerous and life-threatening as what she fled," he continued.

"What is so devastating and appalling is that in a country so prosperous and wealthy, we could not find it in ourselves to offer this woman protection."