The return to Australia of Abyan, the raped Somali refugee, has exposed the lies and misrepresentations of the Minister for Immigration, Peter Dutton.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is now quite clear who peddled the lies and fabrications about Abyan\u2019s treatment and who mislead the Parliament and the public. It was not Abyan; it was not refugee advocates; it was the Minister. His credibility is zero,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
The revelations in The Guardian<\/em> that Peter Dutton had ignored IHMS recommendations to transfer Abyan are damning and confirm the advocates\u2019 version of events.<\/p>\n On 19 October, Peter Dutton told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> that refugee advocates were \u2018constantly shifting their story about Abyan\u2019s case\u2019. But it is the Minister\u2019s story that has constantly shifted. The Minister owes Abyan and refugee advocates an apology.<\/p>\n \u201cSerious questions surround the substance of the list, put forward by Peter Dutton, of so-called consultations that Abyan had while she was in Sydney,\u201d said Rintoul.<\/p>\n Abyan was brought to Australia on the evening of 11 October and removed from Australia without medical treatment, or concern for her mental health, on the morning of 16 October. Peter Dutton told the Sydney Morning Herald on 29 October that \u2018plans to bring Abyan to Australia had “been in the making for some days”.\u2019<\/p>\n Peter Dutton claims that Abyan was seen by nurses and doctors in Sydney between 13 and the 16 October. On 19 October, the Immigration Department official Neil Skill told a Senate Estimates hearing that there was \u2018no reason for that person to stay in Australia.\u2019<\/p>\n Yet, only a few days later, Peter Dutton admits there were compelling reasons to bring Abyan back to Australia and he was making plans to do just that.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter Dutton\u2019s explanation does not pass the sniff test,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, \u201cBut, there is no sign that the Minister has any recognition of the enormity of the gratuitous suffering he has inflicted on Abyan.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Peter Dutton had any integrity he would resign; and if Malcolm Turnbull took respect for women seriously, he would insist on Dutton\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n \u201cSimilarly, the Immigration bureaucrat Neill Skill, who claimed responsibility for the final decision to charter a RAAF flight to spirit her out of the country should also consider tendering his resignation. His callous and unwarranted decision, reversed only several days later, cost Abyan a lot of pain and anguish. He compounded that decision by proffering the ridiculous suggestion to Senate Estimates that Abyan\u2019s, had been \u2018talking about her future on Nauru\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the denials of the Nauruan Prime Minister there been have a number of admitted rapes of refugee women on Nauru. The Australian government, Nauru government, Connect and the Nauruan police are complicit in a cover up of the scale of sexual assault of refugee women on Nauru. They have allowed refugees to be left vulnerable to abuse in the Nauruan community.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the case of Nazanin, an Iranian asylum seeker raped in May, she was only brought to Australia in August. Recommendations from doctors in Australian and Nauru that Nazanin\u2019s brother and mother be brought to Australia to aid her recovery have been ignored by the Immigration Department.<\/p>\n \u201cNazanin\u2019s brother and mother must be urgently brought to Australia; as must all those who are victims of sexual assault. Nauru cannot provide safety, security or a future for asylum seekers or refugees. It must be closed.\u201d <\/p>\n For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The return to Australia of Abyan, the raped Somali refugee, has exposed the lies and misrepresentations of the Minister for Immigration, Peter Dutton. \u201cIt is now quite clear who peddled the lies and fabrications about Abyan\u2019s treatment and who mislead the Parliament and the public. It was not Abyan; it was not refugee advocates; it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12],"class_list":{"0":"post-4438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-press-releases","7":"tag-nauru"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}