The Albanese government's $2.5bn arrangement with Nauru - under which hundreds of non-citizens are shipped to the tiny Pacific island - is facing yet another legal challenge, this time from an alleged child abuse survivor who apparently didn't get the memo that Australia is done with compassion.
Legal representatives for Abdul*, a Hazara man re-detained in immigration detention earlier this month, have launched a bid to prevent his imminent deportation to Nauru by arguing it's incompatible with Australia's constitution. Because nothing says 'constitutional compatibility' like sending a trauma survivor to a remote island.
Alison Battisson, Abdul's lawyer, described his case as 'extraordinary and deeply troubling,' owing to claims he was groomed and sexually abused by a carer as a minor after settling in Australia. The new federal court challenge, filed Tuesday, comes just weeks after the high court dismissed an appeal by an Iranian man - known as TCXM - to stop authorities from exiling him to Nauru for 30 years. That man, in his 60s, has since been removed to the Pacific island. The Australian government has already sent at least nine non-citizens to Nauru on 30-year visas, with many more awaiting deportation from detention centres.
Battisson said Abdul's case raises 'profound legal and moral concerns' because the Australian government had a duty to protect him and failed. In 2013, Abdul, then 16, arrived from Afghanistan and was placed in a community care arrangement after his mother passed away on Christmas Island, according to a redacted Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) decision record from May 2023. The AAT record states Abdul accused his carer of grooming and sexually abusing him within six months of his arrival. Eventually, Abdul and his carer were married in a traditional Islamic ceremony just shy of his 18th birthday, he told the AAT. By 2017, Abdul said he began to realise what had happened and confronted the carer, who then took out an apprehended violence order against him. Abdul was found guilty of two counts of rape against the carer in December that year and one of breaking and entering and stealing money from her. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
When a non-citizen commits an offence attracting a jail sentence of 12 months or more, their visa is automatically cancelled. The AAT can set the cancellation aside after considering a range of circumstances. The AAT ultimately set aside Abdul's visa cancellation in May 2023 after he served his time, ruling in his favour partly because the 'system appears to have failed [Abdul] including that those tasked with protecting him played a role in his abuse.' But he remained in indefinite immigration detention until his release in June 2024, when the government issued him a temporary visa pending his removal.
In late 2024, the Albanese government passed controversial laws allowing Australia to enter into deals under which non-citizens - those who cannot be placed into indefinite detention, cannot remain in Australia because of domestic policy, and cannot be returned to their place of birth because they are stateless or at risk of persecution - could be sent to foreign countries. Abdul was allegedly taken by ten border force officers from his Sydney apartment early one morning in May and placed back into detention awaiting his removal to Nauru. He will remain there until the legal challenge is finalised.
Battisson said his case should 'shock the conscience.' 'Deporting Abdul to Nauru is not just harsh - it is indefensible. It risks condemning a deeply vulnerable person to indefinite detention with no pathway forward,' she said. 'There were multiple missed opportunities to intervene and protect Abdul when he was a minor. Those failures cannot now be erased by deporting him offshore.' The case has also attracted Greens senator David Shoebridge, a strident critic of the deal, who called it a 'story of failure and cruelty.' 'For years, we have seen the major parties seeking to dehumanise people seeking asylum and demonise them,' Shoebridge said.