One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has demanded the Albanese government change the laws that allow IS-linked Australians to return home, after reports a group of women and children detained in Syria had secured plane tickets to Australia.
The group of four women and nine children, who are all Australian citizens, are due to depart the Syrian capital of Damascus in coming days, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
They left the Al-Roj detention camp on Saturday in co-ordination with security forces and had previously received passports through prominent western Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi.
A group of women and children are attempting to return to Australia after years of detention in Syria. Picture: Four Corners
Critics, including the Coalition, have demanded the Albanese government intervene and restrict the cohort’s ability to travel home.
The government has denied assisting the IS-linked group and instead pointed to the right of citizens under Australian law to return to Australia and be issued emergency passports on request.
“We’re not helping them return,” Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek told Seven’s Sunrise on Monday.
“If they do make it to Australia’s borders, we’ll apply Australian law.
“If people have broken the law overseas, they’ll face the full force of Australian law … all of our information is coming from our security and intelligence agencies.
“We very much respect the advice that would be given by them.”
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek backed Australia’s security agencies on their monitoring of the group. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Later, when pressed by Mr Joyce to answer whether Australia could change the law to refuse entry to the group of the ISIS-linked Australians, Ms Plibersek said: “As a government, we follow the law and we follow the advice of our security agencies.”
“Does Barnaby suggest that we shouldn’t be going on the basis of the advice of our security agencies?” she asked.
Asked if this suggestion was true, Mr Joyce avoided answering, instead saying: “We, actually, our jobs, (are) we make laws, right? That’s what we do.”
“We go down there and we go into this room and we vote and it changes laws,” he said.
“So, we should vote to change these laws if there is a problem that says that they’re going to come back.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce says the IS-linked Australians should be barred from returning. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Under Australia’s counter-terrorism laws, the Home Affairs Minister has the ability to block an overseas individual from returning to Australia if they are deemed a national security threat by issuing a temporary exclusion order (TEO).
This power is enacted on the advice of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and prevents the person from re-entering Australia for up to two years at a time.
One individual from the larger cohort of 34 Australians trapped in Al-Roj camp had been issued a TEO upon the advice of ASIO, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in February.
This larger group had tried and failed to travel to Australia that same month.
They were forced to return to Al-Roj camp after Syrian government authorities did not allow them to enter the capital.
The Albanese government says it has “no sympathy” for the group trapped at Al-Roj. Picture: Supplied
The Coalition has repeatedly accused the government of facilitating the group’s return to Australia, with opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien saying on Monday he was sceptical of official claims.
“I don’t believe the government’s line that they’re not facilitating this. They’re getting third parties to do the heavy lifting,” he said.
“They’ve outsourced it. They’ve basically given it to someone else to do.
“Australians really need to have their own way of life protected.
“And I don’t believe that having these adults come back into Australia secures our way of life.”
In February, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor went as far as to describe the Australian children in the larger cohort as terrorist “sympathisers” because of their mothers’ decision to marry Islamic State fighters.