* Editor's note The original story incorrectly stated that a five year old boy was raped. This was based on quotes attributed to Dr Zwi referring to a five year old which were misattributed; Dr Zwi was referring to another case involving a 12 year old boy who was allegedly raped. The doctor stands by that allegation. She has informed the ABC that she has not alleged that the younger child was sexually assaulted on Nauru. The video and transcript have been edited to reflect this.

MATT WORDSWORTH, PRESENTER: The fate of more than 90 children, many of them born in Australia to asylum seeker parents, hangs in the balance tonight after a landmark High Court ruling.

The children and more than 200 other asylum seekers could be flown to detention on Nauru within days after a majority High Court judgment deeming Australia's offshore detention regime valid.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP, REPORTER: Baby Samuel was born in Australia. He's spent all eight months of his life in immigration detention.

His mother is devastated they could soon be on a plane to the tiny island nation of Nauru.

'NAOMI', DETAINEE (voiceover translation): It's like dying. It's waiting for dying.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Samuel is one of 37 babies born to asylum seeker parents in Australia who could be flown offshore because of a landmark High Court ruling.

'NAOMI' (voiceover translation): Our kids are innocent.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: His mother spoke to us by phone from their detention centre in Darwin.

'NAOMI' (voiceover translation): I believe and the mothers in my situation believe that their kids are Australian. It actually feels like a nightmare for us.

JOSH FRANCIS, PAEDIATRICIAN: The families who are possibly going to be sent to Nauru will be devastated, actually, and most of them have been in Nauru previously and they're terrified of what they experienced there and what they stand to face again if they go back.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: The High Court challenge was always going to be an uphill battle, fought by a Bangladeshi woman who'd been flown from Nauru for medical treatment. She gave birth to a daughter and was desperate not to return.

DANIEL WEBB, HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CENTRE: Calling her after the judgement was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life. She immediately broke down. She hasn't slept in days. ... She is now terrified that one night soon her and her daughter are going to be woken up, put on a plane and condemned to a life in limbo on Nauru.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: The woman's lawyers argued it was unconstitutional for the Government to fund and control detention centres in foreign countries. Their challenge was doomed when Labor joined the Government to ram through legislation giving it power to pay foreign countries to run detention centres.

DANIEL WEBB: The court found that our government was heavily involved in the detention of innocent people on Naura, but it said that that involvement was authorised by a retrospective law that the Government introduced after we filed the case, so it was the shifting goal posts that got them over the line.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Now, 267 asylum seekers could be sent offshore, including more than 90 children and a teenager who spoke to 7.30 last night about her time in detention on Naura.

'ASSIYA', FORMER DETAINEE (Yesterday): There is no help there. Like, all they say is, "Do you want to take medication?" And the medication was - given me was, like, just making me worse. You see people self-harming every day, people hanging themself, cutting themself.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: The teenager, known as 'Assiya', spent 14 months in detention, where as an unaccompanied minor she lost the will to live.

'ASSIYA' (Yesterday): I just gave up at that time in my life because life is so tough there. I tried to hang myself with my scarf and one of my friends saved me before I die.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Tonight, another doctor is risking jail to speak out.

JOSH FRANCIS: We'll see children who have depression and anxiety disorders, we see children who are suicidal, children as young as seven years of age who are actually committing acts of self-harm because of suicidal ideation, which is just horrific and it's beyond anything I've experienced as a paediatrician in other patient groups.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Darwin Dr Josh Francis sees children who've been brought from Nauru for treatment and now stand to be sent back.

JOSH FRANCIS: It's the older ones, the older ones who have experienced trauma on Nauru, who have seen people trying to starve themselves, have seen people trying to hang themselves, have seen the distress and the depression that occurs amongst the adults that they live amongst in Nauru. And so for many of them, what they're terrified actually is of what goes on all around them and they know that it's worse in Nauru than it is here in Australia.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: This is Malcolm Turnbull's first test on refugee policy. The Prime Minister is maintaining a tough line.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, RPIME MINISTER: Nobody should ever doubt the resolve of this government to keep our borders secure, to prevent the people smuggling racket, to break their business model and keep lives safe, to prevent drownings at sea and to protect vulnerable people.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: The Government now faces two big questions: should the children be sent to Nauru? And should the doctors defending them be pursued?

MATT WORDSWORTH: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop with that report.