‘Indefensible’: alleged child abuse survivor takes on Albanese government over $2.5bn Nauru deal

The Albanese government’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru, under which hundreds of non-citizens will be sent to the tiny Pacific island, will face another legal challenge prompted by an alleged child abuse survivor.

Legal representatives for Abdul*, a Hazara man who was re-detained in immigration detention earlier this month, have launched a bid to prevent the 29-year-old’s imminent deportation to Nauru by challenging its compatibility with Australia’s constitution.

Alison Battisson, Abdul’s lawyer, said his case was “extraordinary and deeply troubling”, owing to claims he was groomed and sexually abused by a carer as a minor after settling in Australia.

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The new legal challenge, which was filed in federal court on 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. The man in his 60s has since been removed to the Pacific island.

Guardian Australia understands the Australian government has sent at least nine non-citizens to Nauru on 30-year visas as part of the agreement, with many more awaiting deportation from detention centres.

Battisson said Abdul’s case raised “profound legal and moral concerns” because the Australian government had a duty to protect him and failed.

In 2013, Abdul, then 16, arrived in Australia from Afghanistan and was placed in a community care arrangement after his mother passed away while on Christmas Island, according to a redacted decision record made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in May 2023, seen by Guardian Australia.

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 to him 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 that attracts 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.