A pregnant woman who says she was raped at an Australia detention center for asylum seekers on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru cannot be forced to have an abortion in Papua New Guinea because it is unsafe and illegal, a court has ruled.
Under Australia's hard-line immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia are sent for processing to camps on Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and are told they will never be settled in Australia.
The harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse at the camps, which house asylum seekers fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq, South Asia and Africa as well as those deemed economic migrants, have drawn wide criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.