Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly has said the government is placing its confidence in Australia’s intelligence agencies, after Australian Security Intelligence Organisation head Mike Burgess said he was not “concerned immediately” with the imminent return of 13 ISIS-linked Australians.
“We have to be confident in our security agencies and take their advice. And you know, I understand that there are people out there who would be concerned about the return of these women and of their children, but we do need to rely, and we rely heavily, on the advice of our security agencies,” Aly told the ABC this afternoon.
Minister for Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly.Alex Ellinghausen
“They are world-class security agencies. They have undertaken risk assessments. They have at their hands the tools that they need to be able to undertake those risk assessments.”
The group of four women and nine children are expected to arrive in Australia this week. Aly reiterated the government’s statement that Labor has provided no support to the cohort in returning to Australia.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said some members of the group would be arrested when they landed in the country, while others would be monitored. The children will undergo “community integration programs, therapeutic support and countering violent extremism programs”.
The minister said she believed the cohort could be rehabilitated, and that she was “a believer in the ability of people to have a different trajectory in life”.