Australian blocked from returning over security concerns

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has used carefully selected wording to confirm reporting in this masthead that 34 women and children in an interment camp in Syria have Australian passports.

The women and children who originally travelled to Syria and lived under the so-called caliphate of terrorist group Islamic State have returned to the headlines in recent days, as some of them left the camp this week in an attempt to return to Australia.

On Wednesday night, Burke was pressed by ABC TV’s Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 to confirm whether the group had Australian passports, and as such could legally return to Australia.

“It’s reported they were carrying Australian travel documents or passports. Is that correct?” Ferguson asked.

“I have seen those reports,” Burke replied. “The reality is anyone who is a citizen is able to apply for a passport and receive a passport.”

“You must know, by the time you have come onto this program tonight, whether they did or did not have…”

“Yeah I do,” Burke interjected.

“I’m giving the very practical answer that if anyone applies for a passport, as a citizen, they are issued with a passport. In the same way that public servants, if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card. These are automatic processes done by public servants.”

“That was a long way of saying yes,” said Ferguson.

“I have given the answer with the words I wanted to.”

Pushed further on whether the children in the camps were citizens, Burke replied: “Anyone who has been found to be a citizen and has applied and been issued with a passport … everybody has the same citizenship in Australia.”

The government has adopted a hard line against the proposed family repatriation plan.

Burke insisted that his government is not helping Islamic State-linked families return home, even though Syrian officials confirmed overnight that the women and children have passports issued by Australia.

One of the group of 34 seeking to return to Australia from an internment camp in Syria has been prevented from doing so under an order designed to protect Australians from national security risks.

The orders can apply to any citizen aged from 14, but sources not authorised to speak publicly confirmed it would apply to a woman, not one of the 23 children in the camp. All are Australian citizens.

Burke and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have been under pressure from the opposition to use these orders to prevent the repatriation of the 34 women and children.

Burke said in a brief statement the order against the woman was made on advice from security agencies.

“At this stage security agencies have not provided advice that other members of the cohort meet the required legal thresholds for temporary exclusion orders.”

The regime, put in place under the Morrison government in 2019 with Labor’s agreement, can prevent people re-entering Australia for up to two years. Burke can impose such an order if he believes it will prevent a terrorist act, support for a terrorist act or if the person excluded is considered a security risk “for reasons related to politically motivated violence”. Anybody who helps the excluded person return to Australia would also be committing a crime.

Burke’s statement did not say whether it would apply for the full two years.

The opposition signalled late on Wednesday it would keep the pressure up, with shadow home affairs and immigration minister Jonno Duniam saying the order “raises more questions than it answers”.

“These ISIS brides all travelled to the same ‘declared area’ for the same reason of supporting the same listed terrorist organisation – how can only one member of this group be deemed a risk and the rest somehow OK?”

This masthead revealed on Wednesday that the head of the camp detaining the 34 women and children confirmed the families had presented valid passports. Sources with knowledge of the situation, but who are not authorised to speak publicly, referred to the passports presented at the al-Roj camp as “single-use-only” documents.

In an exclusive interview in Arabic with this masthead, camp boss Hakamia Ibrahim said: “We photographed the families’ passports and made copies. I personally saw the passports and obtained copies of them – this is a security measure.” Authorities in the north-east of Syria have always required valid travel documents before families can be released from the camp.

Requests by this masthead to see the documents were declined.

The women and children are trying to get back to Australia after their IS-fighter husbands and fathers were imprisoned or killed. They have lived in tents for seven years since the fall of the so-called caliphate in March 2019.

Albanese has for months denied the government has been aiding any Australians to leave Syria, but the issuing of passports to them challenges that narrative. He insists that issuing a passport, and supporting a family-organised repatriation, does not constitute “assistance”.

“An implementation of Australian law is what is happening,” Albanese told journalists in Tasmania on Wednesday. “We are providing no assistance to these people, and won’t provide any assistance to these people. But we won’t breach Australian law.”

The UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Professor Ben Saul, said the prime minister was being “utterly disingenuous” in claiming the government was not helping the women and children, even if it hadn’t been proactively facilitating their return.

“It’s entirely misleading in the sense that, of course, giving somebody a passport is assisting them,” the international law expert said. “They’re obviously dodging political bullets here because there’s a pretty toxic climate around terrorism post-Bondi.”

The “family repatriation” has been organised by western Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, a community supporter of Burke in his western Sydney electorate.

Rifi, who is in the Middle East helping facilitate the transfer, has not responded to requests for comment. Burke said in his statement that Rifi had not discussed his plans with him.

“I have no information other than what I’ve seen in the media about whether Dr Jamal Rifi is in Australia or overseas. He has not discussed any plans with me, nor would he have any reason to,” the minister said.

The Passports Act says passports must be issued to “any Australian who meets eligibility requirements” – requirements that “go to citizenship and identity”, according to senior DFAT officials in answer to parliamentary questions this month.

However, previous requests by the families for their passports have been rebuffed. Albanese has not answered questions about what has changed recently to make the provision of passports possible.

In north-east Syria, from where the group must travel to get home, Albanese’s comments are being reported as the Australian government refusing to repatriate the cohort.

Ibrahim also said that, since the women were turned around on a highway and returned to the camp on Monday, it was unclear if they would obtain permission to travel at all.

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson had earlier explicitly pushed the government to use temporary exclusion orders.

“It can keep an Australian citizen offshore for up to two years while a case is built against them so that they can be charged if they ever do choose to return subsequently,” Paterson told Sky News.

Albanese said before the order was issued that the government was taking national security advice about exclusion orders and would “do what we can to keep Australians safe within the law”.

Concerns have been raised about whether the orders are constitutional, though the question has never been tested in the High Court. Saul, the UN special rapporteur, said it was unlikely the women’s circumstances reached the legal threshold for the orders.

“Just pointing to past historical ties to ISIS would certainly not be enough,” the Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney said.

“You’ve got to show that the minister suspects, on reasonable grounds, that making the order would substantially assist in preventing a terrorist attack or terrorist training, or support for a terrorist act.”

Duniam said if the threshold to use the exclusion orders was too high, the law should be changed.

“Why not pick up the phone to the opposition? We need to alter the laws to protect our country, and if that means altering the laws to lower the threshold, then let us know because we need to keep Australia safe. Don’t pretend it’s all out of your control,” Duniam told Sky News.

Ibrahim, the camp director, said the families were devastated that the attempt to bring them home from the camp had, at least temporarily, stalled. “The hopes of the women and children have been shattered.”

Family advocates say the Australian government has known of the identities, status and activities of this cohort for more than a decade in some cases, and they have been extensively investigated by the Australian Federal Police and ASIO since their capture and internment in 2019.

Those who have been returned in 2019 and 2022 have faced minor criminal charges. No convictions have been recorded.

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