Refugee rape victim denies Australian minister's claims

10/20/2015 4:17:58 AM

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A Somalia refugee impregnated after allegedly being raped on Nauru has denied claims by Australia’s minister for immigration saying that she was sent back to the South Pacific island after deciding not to undergo an abortion.

Local media reported Monday that Peter Dutton has struck back by accusing advocates of using the case of a medical procedure asa way to influence refugees’ migration to Australia which has a strict policy of refusing to resettle asylum-seekers who arrive by boat in the country.

Last week the 23-year-old woman known by the pseudonym "Abyan" was flown from Nauru – where Australia holds asylum-seekers in offshore detention center and where abortions are mostly illegal – only to be sent back on a chartered jet Friday.

Dutton said in a statement Saturday that Abyan had "decided not to proceed with the termination."

However in a statement hand-written and photographed in Nauru and sent to her lawyer George Newhouse Abyan – who is 14-weeks pregnant – denied the ministry’s claims saying she had no contact with either a doctor or an interpreter.

"I have been very sick. I have never said thate [sic] I did not want a termination” she said in the letter whose photograph appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I never saw a doctor. I saw a nurse at a clinic but there was no counselling. I [also] saw a nurse at Villawood but there was no interpreter” it added referring to the detention center in Sydney. “I asked but was not allowed to talk with my lawyer."

According to Newhouse Abyan was asked when she wished to undergo the abortion and responded “'I'll tell you tomorrow or the next day' and said she wanted to see a counselor or doctor.”

“She also wanted to speak to me" he added.

An unnamed Immigration source however told SMH that Abyan had see doctors and counselors in addition to nurses during her time in Australia but would not reveal how Abyan – who has been found to qualify as a genuine refugee – was able to communicate.

Dutton had said that advocates "appear to be using this woman's circumstance for their own political agenda" insisting that she was “brought to Australia for medical attention not for a migration outcome."

Julie Hamblin a prominent health care law expert said Monday that Abyan’s description of events suggested a breach of Immigration’s duty of care.

"If it is the case that she's fallen pregnant because of sexual assault there is an obvious risk to her psychological well-being" SMH quoted her as saying.

"For a person under the control of the Department of Immigration the government has a duty of care to provide her with access to the treatment she needs. It does not seem unreasonable for the government to agree to provide counseling as a minimum."

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