Bring jihadists’ kids stranded in Syria back to Australia before it’s too late, warns Jamal Rifi

Australians are being assured that a group of ISIS-linked children trying to return home pose no threat to the community but could eventually become radicalised if they’re forced to remain in a Syrian detention camp.

The Sydney doctor coordinating the repatriation efforts for the eleven stranded families has again pleaded with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to help, saying the minors should not be “persecuted for the sins of their fathers”.

Doctor Jamal Rifi, pictured above, spoke extensively to 7NEWS from Lebanon as authorities have reportedly revealed that another two Australian linked women who are considered “extremist” are also being held in Syria’s Al-Roj camp.

Asked whether he could assure the Australian public they would be safe following the return of the 11 women and 23 children, Dr Rifi responded that “competent agencies” would ensure measures are in place “to prevent that harm”.

“I’m very confident those children right now, they don’t pose much threat to Australia, Australian people and our way of life. But the longer we leave them there, then they might,” he said.

He said the children, especially the boys, risked becoming more traumatised emotionally, psychologically and ideologically.

“Because the male, when they usually reach 12 or 13 years of age, the policy was to take them from their mother’s tent and from the camp and put them into an adult prison.”

The close friend and supporter of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has again criticised the Prime Minister’s recent comments about the terrorist-linked group but predicted their “rightful” return was “not a matter of if, but when”.

Last week Mr Albanese repeatedly insisted his government would not provide any repatriation assistance to the group and declared: “My mother would have said if you make your bed, you lie in it”.

In response Dr Rifi accused the Government and Opposition of engaging in dog-whistling politics and he urged the PM to take pity on children who have been stuck in the camp for six years.

“Mr. Prime Minister, I think you should listen to my mother this time, because my mother would have told me and will tell you right now, those innocent children should not really stay in those camps any days longer for fault of not their own and children should not be persecuted for the sins of their fathers.”

“I wholeheartedly believe it’s not a matter of if, but when. It is a rightful way to return to their home country. But I can’t say when it’s going to happen, but we will keep on trying,” Dr Rifi told 7NEWS from the city of Tripoli.

On Thursday Al-Roj camp director Hakamia Ibrahim was quoted as saying the overwhelming majority of Australian women detained in the Kurdish-controlled camp in northeast Syria had displayed no extremist behaviour.

However, Ms Ibrahim said that another two women believed to have links to Australian ISIS fighters who were being housed separately from the main cohort of 34 mothers and children, posed a potential security risk.

“In the camp, they (Australians) did not cause problems — except for two people, of course. They are still among the extremists, from the extremist women,” Ms Ibrahim told the Australian newspaper.

One of the children, six-year-old Layla, reportedly described her excitement last week at briefly leaving the camp for the first time in her short life, before the Australian families were turned back by local authorities.

“I saw a donkey, I saw a horse, I saw a pony (for the first time) and I saw a baby cow,” she said in response to questions from her mother, Zeinab Ahmed who said she would prefer her daughter answer questions to “humanise” their plight.