Albanese Government accused of cloaking return of 11 ISIS brides and their 23 children in ‘secrecy’

The Albanese Government has been accused of cloaking the return of 11 so-called ISIS brides and their 23 children in “secrecy”, as key questions remain unanswered despite days of mounting political pressure.

As scrutiny of Labor deepens, new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor on Monday unveiled his proposal to criminalise assisting individuals with terrorist links to re-enter Australia — pledging to introduce the legislation as early as the next week.

Mr Taylor was joined by his shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam who has repeatedly claimed that simple questions on the ongoing controversy were being avoided by the Albanese government.

Both insisted that the Albanese Government was being coy about the role it had played in facilitating the women’s return from Al-Roj camp in northern Syria, after they had travelled to an extremist stronghold several years earlier.

It includes meetings with international human rights organisation Save the Children and prominent Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, who is a close associate of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

“Labor has done everything except drive these people to the airport to support them returning to Australia,” Mr Taylor told a press conference in Brisbane on Monday.

“While much of their activity, Labor’s activity, has been shrouded in secrecy, what we do know is this, first, they have had secret meetings on repatriation.

“Tony Burke has been part of those meetings.

“There have been DNA tests done, there have been passports issued. Only one technical exclusion order has been issued.

“Tony Burke’s mate is involved in assisting the repatriation and Labor has been spending months preparing for these returns.

“Labor needs to be upfront with the Australian people about what is going on here, but most of all, Labor needs to support this legislation which will help to protect Australians and protect our way of life.”

Senator Duniam questioned why Anthony Albanese, Minister Burke and his frontbenchers had repeatedly insisted in media interviews that they didn’t want the cohort to return but weren’t actively trying to stop them.

“That’ll be the test for the government to see whether they’re serious about not wanting these people to come back to Australia and doing everything they can to protect our country,” Senator Duniam said.

“No Australian family wants to live next door to an ISIS family, but that is a real risk under this Labor Government with a hands-off approach to national security.”

Senator Duniam said the new laws would amend the Criminal Code to make it illegal to provide assistance to repatriate individuals who’ve gone to a declared terrorist hotspot, with penalties ranging up to 10-year imprisonment.

The proposal was swiftly dismissed by the Prime Minister who said it wasn’t a “serious plan”, as he continued to point the finger of blame at the past, again taking aim at Scott Morrison for letting fighters return.

“They don’t have serious plans. If they did, they wouldn’t have allowed more than 40 people, including fighters, on their watch when they were in government,” he said.

He said the government has received the same advice as the Coalition regarding any new legislation to keep the cohort out of Australia.

“We, of course, have advice, but it’s the same advice that frankly the Coalition got. Which is why the laws that are in place are the laws that were put there by the Coalition.

“They pretend that the Constitution doesn’t exist.

“They know there are limits to what can be done. But I repeat, our position is we are not repatriating people, and we’re not providing assistance.”

But there was some mixed commentary from earlier in the day after Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said Labor would consider legislative changes but said it would need to consult with intelligence and security agencies before giving support.

“It’s important that we implement the laws that we have,” Ms Rowland told Sunrise.

“The laws that we have right now are those that were devised under Scott Morrison, which I might say also saw some 40 or so repatriations to Australia, including ISIS fighters.”

“Our agencies are the best in the world. Any proposed laws would obviously need to be done in consultation with our agencies and take their advice.”

“This is a cohort that has been monitored for years by our agencies.

“In the event that it has been put forward that they have committed crimes, they will be subjected to the full force of the law on their arrival.

“These people were told repeatedly not to go to this area. That is why the government has taken the approach that it has.”

Mr Morrison slammed Mr Albanese’s blame game on Monday, telling News.com.au it was a false claim that up to 40 terrorist fighters returned home under his Government when the vast majority did so over a decade ago.

“There was also no ‘facilitation’ of their entry. They were dealt with as their cases presented,” Mr Morrison said, calling for the PM to clarify his remarks.

“Unaccompanied minors that were security cleared overseas.”

After their first attempt to leave the camp failed on Monday last week, the group are reportedly gearing up for a subsequent attempt amid reports that their al-Roj camp in northern Syria will soon be closed.

Local authorities would not allow them to travel beyond the Kurdish-held area more than 700km toward Damascus, reportedly due to a lack of prior coordination and approved passage with the Syrian government.

The camp closure comes after Syrian government forces reclaimed large swathes of territory in the north-east in January that had been under Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control for more than a decade.

Syrian officials have also reported the closure of the much larger al-Hol camp, which also held women and children from ISIS fighters, where Syrian and foreign nationals’ families have been relocated.

A string of questions put to the Home Affairs Minister on Friday went unanswered, including what, if any, state, or territories had been engaged to assist arrival arrangements, what type of passport or travel document was issued to the women and when they were approved.

The Nightly was only told that the government would not be publicly confirming details about the group.

While NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed on Monday that the state government had been engaged for assistance should the women return, it’s understood WA isn’t expecting any of the group to arrive in Perth.

The majority of the 11 suspected terrorist linked women have been publicly named in previous media article where they have pleaded for the Australian government to help in their return to Australia.

Most of those in the cohort lived in either Melbourne or Sydney before travelling to the region to support male family members, almost all of whom are understood to have been killed in fighting.

Speaking on Monday about the group Mr Minns said he expected a third of the 34 ISIS brides and their children could be returned to NSW.

He also revealed discussions between commonwealth and NSW officials began late last year on the potential return of the latest cohort.

“NSW government agencies have been working with the Commonwealth since the end of last year about possible arrivals from Syria, from refugee camps,” he said.

“It’s been on an official-to-officials level, and it has to do with what happens if, or when, they return to NSW.

“I think I was briefed towards the end of last year. I remember my officials saying that they were entering conversations with Commonwealth officials about plans in place in Australia in the event that they return.”

While he wouldn’t provide operational details, such as the amount resources required by the State, he spoke of his sympathy for children in the group.

“I worry about where these children will be in the years ahead, and I worry about what the consequences of doing nothing for them, if they did return to Australia, would be,” he said.

“The NSW government would educate them, and we would make sure that they were safe.”

Save the Children criticised the Coalition’s proposal on Monday, including a statement it hadn’t conducted extraction or repatriation operations.

“While we have yet to see the details of this proposal, any attempt to criminalise advocacy for Australian children stranded overseas would be extraordinary,” chief executive Mat Tinkler said.

“Instead of investing effort in ways to stop help for innocent Australian children, politicians should be focused on finding ways to protect them.

“Save the Children has already made it clear that we are not facilitating the re-entry of Australian citizens from northeastern Syria.

“We have not, and will not, conduct extraction or repatriation operations.

“We believe all children are innocent and should not be held responsible for their parents’ actions.”

Mr Taylor, however, confirmed that there would be exemptions for humanitarian or security-based repatriation.

Questions remain about whether the group have been issued a Provisional Travel Document rather than a passport or emergency passport which can only be obtained at an embassy.

If so, the women would be on a deadline, as the permits expire after 10 days but can be extended to a month.

The Nightly put forward another list of questions on Monday, including about how the 34 be monitored if they return, by which authority and what the potential cost could be to taxpayers.

The only response was brief and attributable to an “Australian Government spokesperson”.

“We cannot comment on individual cases. There is a legal obligation to issue passports to Australians who are eligible,” they stated.

Another key question which remains unclear is how many in this group based in Syria are dual citizens and could return to another country.

Questions on dual nationalities have previously been raised in Senate estimates hearings, with one taken on notice from 2017 revealing an early cohort of ISIS fighters had dual nationalities from around 20 countries.

The Prime Minister had sought to distract from the national border security debate on Monday by heading to the NSW border town of Albury when a by-election is expected to be held after Farrer MP Sussan Ley hands in her resignation.

Asked about the ISIS brides saga during a press conference in the regional electorate on Monday and then PM partly answered before pivoting his response back to the Coalition’s preferencing at the upcoming poll.