Labor defends ISIS brides repatriation stance, as Coalition pushes passport powers

Intelligence officers could soon interrogate captured Australian ISIS fighters in Iraq, as the opposition demands new laws to prevent women and children linked to the terrorist group from returning home.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has declared Labor must “shut the door” on Australian citizens considered a security risk, suggesting government ministers should be given the power to unilaterally refuse passports.

On Thursday the Prime Minister declared he had “nothing but contempt” for the parents who travelled to the Middle East, following confirmation from Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke that Australia had issued passports to the 11 ISIS-linked families in Syria.

“We have a firm position, which is that the mothers in this case who made this decision to travel overseas against Australia’s national interest are the responsible ones who’ve put their children in this position.”

“We can’t bring the children back without their mothers. It is their mothers that have put them in this position,” Mr Albanese told the ABC.

When pushed on why the cohort had been issued with travel documents, Mr Albanese insisted “Australian citizens have rights” but reaffirmed that the Government was not providing repatriation support.

“We followed the law, and we followed the advice of the authorities. The Government is providing no support for the repatriation of these people or any support whatsoever. I have nothing but contempt for these people,” he said.

Speaking on the Gold Coast, the Opposition Leader said the so-called ISIS brides were sympathetic to a “heinous ideology” and called on Labor to tighten temporary exclusion legislation.

“These are ISIS members and supporters. It is an organisation which is banned in this country. It’s been responsible for heinous attacks around the world. And yet this government is not taking the measures it needs to shut the door,” Mr Taylor said.

Asked whether the foreign minister should have the power to independently refuse passports without advice from authorities, the Opposition Leader responded “absolutely”.

“The Government should be doing everything it can to stop them from coming back. And if we need to work with the Government to pass legislation, to tighten legislation to make sure that they can’t come back, we will.”

“These people left Australia. They left Australia to support a terrorist organisation that has heinous views, a heinous ideology, completely at odds with what we believe with our way of life. And they shouldn’t be coming back.”

Meanwhile the Australian Federal Police has confirmed at least 10 foreign terrorist fighters have been charged on their return home from Syria and Iraq since 2013, as authorities seek to assure the public that any repatriated ISIS brides will face legal consequences.

The nine male returnees, and one female, have all been charged with offences under the Criminal Code or Foreign Incursion and Recruitment Act.

“The AFP and state and territory law enforcement partners are aware of community concerns regarding the potential return of Australian women and children from IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Middle East,” an AFP spokesperson said.

“As with previous Australians that have returned, including women and children, where Australians returning to Australia have allegedly breached Australian law, they will be — where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis — subject to law enforcement action.

“The safety of Australia’s national interests remain the overriding priority,” the AFP spokesperson added.

Burke says captured Australian ISIS fighters should remain locked up

The Home Affairs Minister has also responded to The Nightly’s revelation on Wednesday that 13 Australian fighters were among thousands of ISIS-linked terrorists recently transferred from Syria to Iraq as part of a large-scale US-led military operation.

“I’ve received some information on that transfer that the US has been doing,” Minister Burke told Seven News.

“Importantly, those fighters were locked up and are still locked up. And I think it’s very important, because there’s nothing, nothing more important than community safety and those fighters should be locked up.”

Mr Burke refused to say whether Australian intelligence officers would soon head to Iraq to question the suspected foreign fighters who are being held in a Baghdad prison, but said it was reasonable for local authorities to interrogate them.

“It is fair to say that the northern part of Syria has been becoming increasingly unstable for some time, and it is reasonable to presume that our allies will be doing everything they can to make sure that people who are a security risk remain locked up.”

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam said Australians should be rightly concerned about their safety and the security of their nation if the imprisoned ISIS fighters were ever able to return home.

“I am concerned about the approach the government will take on this very issue, when they’re so soft when it comes to ISIS Brides, people who, again, have gone to Syria to support Islamic State, a death cult, a known terrorist and listed terrorist organisation.”

Doctor John Coyne, the director of the National Security Program at the Australian Security Policy Institute says federal police or ASIO would only interview the suspects in Baghdad if there was some intelligence or investigative value in doing so.

“Sending AFP officers or teams to Iraq would involve a risk assessment, and it certainly wouldn’t be an automatic move. There must be some purpose. If the prisoners are not due for release soon, then there may be no reason to go there,” he told The Nightly.