The federal opposition has proposed a new criminal offence to punish those who help Australians with links to Islamic State to return home, as it accuses the government of being complacent about the possible return of 34 wives and children of former fighters.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has imposed a temporary block on one member of the cohort, but told ABC Insiders on Sunday that ASIO did not believe the other 33 met the bar for the same, and that none of the group met the criteria to be denied passports.
A group of 11 families left the camp on Monday but were forced to turn back shortly afterwards. (ABC News: Baderkhan Ahmad)
The group has been issued passports, which the ABC has reported were brought to Syria by a group of family members and others trying to help them return. Mr Burke has maintained that the government will not assist with the repatriation.
But opposition spokesperson Jonathon Duniam on Sunday accused the government of “not doing enough” to block the group’s return, saying the Coalition would work with the government to pass new laws if these would help to achieve that goal.
How Australia has the power to ban ‘ISIS brides’ from returning
The new proposal would make it an offence for anyone to assist those who are “linked to terrorist hotspots or terrorist organisations” or have committed terror-related offences to return to Australia.
An exception would apply in circumstances where the government had given “express permission” for repatriation to occur.
“This legislation sends a very clear message: anyone who travels to a designated terrorist hotspot, such as Syria, to support a death cult like ISIS does not deserve to come back to Australia,” Senator Duniam said.
The Coalition’s shadow national security committee met on Sunday to approve the bill, but has not published it in full. It is not clear whether the Coalition intends for the laws to apply retrospectively to those who have been assisting the current cohort.
The women themselves are not the target of the bill, but may face criminal charges under existing laws when they return to Australia, for associating with a terrorist group. The government has promised the “full force of the law” will apply.
Group of 34 ‘not consistent’: Burke
Mr Burke said the decision to single out just one member of the cohort for a temporary exclusion order was made on the advice of authorities and reflected that the others were “very different people”.
“[They have] different histories, and different states of mind, if I can put it in those terms. They are quite different,” he said.
Eleven Australian ‘ISIS brides’ trying to leave Syria named
Mr Burke added that intelligence agencies had been “following them for a long time”, although government officials had not been able to interview them in person since 2022.
The group is currently in the Al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria, which is under the control of Kurdish authorities. They were not successful in their first attempt to leave that camp last week, but both Syrian and Kurdish authorities want the camp closed.
The ABC has revealed the names of the 11 women in the group, several of whom have spoken to the broadcaster about their circumstances in the past.