Refugee pens emotional handwritten letter claiming Australian officials 'denied her an abortion'

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Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has denied claims the government incorrectly handled the case of a refugee who sought an abortion in the country after allegedly being raped.

The 23-year-old Somali refugee, known by the pseudonym Abyan, claims she became pregnant after being raped in July at a detention camp on Nauru.

She requested an abortion and the Australian government flew her on a commercial flight to Sydney for the 14-week pregnancy to be terminated.

However, she was flown 2,500 miles back to Nauru on Friday in a chartered private jet, in what some critics have claimed was a hastily arranged bid to beat a potential court order allowing her to stay.

Government officials have said she was sent back because she had decided not to proceed with the termination.

Abyan has since penned an emotional handwritten letter to Mr Dutton, saying she “never saw a doctor” in Sydney and had not changed her mind about the abortion.

She also claims she was not allowed an interpreter and counselling while in Sydney.

“I have been very sick,” she writes in the signed handwritten statement.

"I have never said that I did not want a termination.”

Abyan’s lawyer, George Newhouse, said he was preparing an application for a temporary court injunction to her in Australia when he discovered she was to be sent back to Nauru, meaning he was unable to submit the application before her departure.

Mr Newhouse has set up a petition, which had just under 64,500 signatures at the time of writing, urging Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull to bring Abyan back to Australia for “medical and psychological treatment”.

“She was brutally raped, left helpless and pregnant," writes Mr Newhouse in the petition. "Now a 23-year-old Nauru rape victim is being denied urgent medical and psychological treatment in Australia.

“This cruel and heartless act of neglect is barbaric - time is running out to help a vulnerable and traumatised young lady.“

Mr Dutton has denied Abyan’s claims she was not given access to doctors or an interpreter, adding 240 asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia for medical treatment from Nauru have succeeded in getting court injunctions to prevent their return.

Neil Skill, first assistant secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, told a Senate committee he decided to charter a flight because no commercial seats were available on the day and was concerned about the disruption Abyan might cause on a commercial flight if she did not want to return to Nauru.

Mr Skill said Abyan could later decide to return for an abortion in Sydney, which are legal for the first 20 weeks of pregnancy in Australia.

Additional reporting by Associated Press