Too close to home!
Australian ISIS bride Zehra Duman (centre) with her child
A Labor senator is urging the Australian Government to bring the brides and children of ISIS fighters detained in Syrian camps back to Australia.
Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Kristina Keneally argued that the Government is morally obliged to repatriate women and children of ISIS back to Australia.
The Labor frontbencher told ABC’s Insiders that while some of the women ‘do retain a determination to commit terrorist acts’, some are genuine victims brought to the war-torn region against their will.
‘I think all Australians would agree with the prime minister and (home affairs) minister Dutton that the 40 or so Australian women or children who have a claim to an Australian citizenship are indeed innocent victims,’ she said.
Senator Keneally claimed the government have a ‘full toolkit’ to assess whether someone returning to the country poses a threat.
She also referenced laws that allow for the exclusion of ‘people who seek to do us harm’.
‘The temporary exclusion orders were only passed by the parliament a few months ago and they are specifically designed to manage and prosecute where appropriate the return of those foreign fighters,’ she said.
‘While there are risks, we do have legislative tools in place to protect our national security and there is a significant risk, both to the region, the world and indeed to Australia if foreign fighters are left there in Syria.’
Senator Keneally referenced a similar situation in Afghanistan in the 1970s where the foreign fighters who were unable to return to their homeland formed al-Qaeda.
Ms Keneally’s comments come after US President Donald Trump pulled US troops out of Syrian camps.
She said the US called on western allies to follow their example.
The Australian reported there are concerns Kurdish forces will leave the internment camps to fight against Turkey.
Among these camps is Al-Hawl in northeastern Syria which contains 70,000 people including 66 Australian woman and children.
The orphaned children of terrorist Khaled Sharrouf are among the detainees.
Zaynab, 17, Hoda, 16, and Humzeh Sharrouf, eight, have spent five years in the infamous camp after their now-deceased parents brought them to The Middle East in 2013.
Khaled and sons Abdullah, 12, and Zarqawi, 11, died in a Coalition airstrike. The children’s mother Tara Nettleton died following complications from appendicitis in 2015.
Their Australian grandmother Karen Nettleton has desperately tried to take them home.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Kristina Keneally for comment.