Mothers associated with Islamic State would willingly go to prison in Australia if it meant getting their children out of Syria, a family representative has confirmed, as the opposition appeared to soften its stance on the issue.
In Syria meanwhile, the official who runs the al-Roj camp where the 34 women and children have been living said they were well-behaved and had caused no problems to camp authorities, unlike some others.
Asked if the women were prepared to go to jail to get their children home, family representative Jamal Rifi told Nine News, “without any doubt, they indicated that – and they are happy to go through the justice system, yes.”
Rifi’s words are part of efforts by the families to calm the Australian public’s fear that the women and children are radicalised and would be dangerous if returned.
A number of the women also told a reporter from The Guardian earlier this week that they would send their children to Australia without them if it meant saving them from the appalling conditions in the camp.
But the government rejected that proposal too, with deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles saying, “Australia is not facilitating the return of any of this cohort. It’s as simple as that.”
On Thursday, opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam appeared to soften his line on the women and children, telling Radio 2GB that, “if you could properly satisfy yourself that there was no risk, then, of course, bring them back”.
Duniam and other opposition members have tried to pin the blame on the Albanese government for the repatriation plan enacted by the families. But pushed on this position, Duniam shifted his criticism to focus on the government’s “no assistance” policy.
“Taking your hand off the wheel like that when it comes to national security, I don’t think is right,” Duniam said of the government. “If they are to come back, they have to come back on the government’s terms, on behalf of the people of Australia.”
However, this should only happen if the security agencies had been able to undertake a full risk assessment, Duniam said. This was difficult to do from Australia he said, adding that ASIO operatives should travel to Syria or the nearby border to do a proper job.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said in 2022 that the agency had conducted risk assessments involving face-to-face interviews with the entire cohort of Australians in the camps. Their possible return had been factored into the agency’s risk assessment that year, in which the threat of a terror attack was dropped from “probable” to “possible”.
The closest observer of this cohort in recent years has been the Syrian official whose camp has housed the 34 women and children for the past six years. She has confirmed that, unlike other inmates in her camp, the Australian cohort was no trouble.
“The Australian group was always staying in the same spot in the camp. They were always together,” camp director Hakamia Ibrahim told a local journalist. “In general, they were well-behaved. Their way of speaking was good. They did not have any problems and in the camp they did not cause problems or behave in an aggressive way.”
Ibrahim said that, outside the Australian cohort, among the 40 or 50 other nationalities in the camp, it was a different story.
“Today, there is no evaluation that … any one of these women has changed or their thinking has changed … these women are still holding on to this ideology and this thinking, and are planting it in the minds of their children, to the degree that their children are becoming a new Islamic State.”
ASIO declined to respond to questions, but in 2019, it warned the Morrison government that its legislation to strip Australian citizenship from dual citizens and leave them overseas “may also have unintended or unforeseen adverse security outcomes”.
US military commander Admiral Brad Cooper expressed this risk after a recent visit to a Syrian camp saying he “saw first-hand the need to accelerate repatriations” to their home countries because,“repatriating vulnerable populations before they are radicalised is not just compassion, it’s a decisive blow against ISIS’ ability to regenerate.
“Today, I [call] on every nation with detained or displaced personnel in Syria to return your citizens.”
With Mohammed Hassan
Michael Bachelard is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X or email.
Andrew Probyn is Nine Network’s national affairs editor, working out of the Federal bureau.Connect via X.
