ISIS-Linked ‘Dr. Jihad’ Wants to Return to Australia—Labor Says It Can’t Stop Him

The Labor government maintains it has no power to stop any attempt by the formerly presumed dead, “Dr. Jihad,” from returning to Australia.

Tareq Kamleh, dubbed “Dr. Jihad,” was born and raised in Perth before becoming a licensed doctor in 2010 and moved to Adelaide.

In 2015, he entered Syria illegally and joined ISIS, even changing his name Abu Yousef al-Australie and appearing in numerous ISIS propaganda videos aimed at recruiting new members.

Kamleh largely worked as a medical practitioner within ISIS ranks providing health services.

There is an active Australian Federal Police arrest warrant against him and he was believed to have died over 10 years ago.

Yet reports suggest Kamleh has been housed in a high-security Iraqi prison facility, according to Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, and is looking to return to Australia with 12 other ISIS-linked men.

In response, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told Channel 7’s Sunrise program that she would leave specific details to the Home Affairs minister to address, but she maintained she did not want Kamleh back.

“How someone who is a trained medical professional who is trained to help people stay alive ends up in a death cult I simply cannot imagine,” she said.

“As far as I’m concerned that person can rot in jail.

“We do not want this person back in Australia.”

Yet Labor’s Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government would not “provide assistance,” but maintained that like previous cases of returning ISIS-linked Australians, there was little that could be done.

“There are limits around what governments can do, but certainly anyone who returns to Australia who’s been part of these sorts of organisations will face the full force of the law,” he told media.

In recent months, around 32 ISIS “brides” and their children have been granted return to Australia, with another briefly barred with a temporary exclusion order, but now has the option to return.

All parties managed to obtain passports to return.

The federal government has so far made no attempt to challenge the return of ISIS-linked Australians in court or to introduce additional reforms in parliament.

The Epoch Times contacted the Department of Home Affairs for further comment.

In response, Liberal MP Bridget McKenzie also told Sunrise that Kamleh should qualify for a temporary exclusion order, and called on the government to reveal how long it had known of Kamleh’s whereabouts.

“What are the plans for his extradition and treatment once he arrives at home? Because the fact is Dr. Jihad is an Islamic terrorist, despite the fact he is now trying to argue that he is a non-combatant just simply providing medical services,” she said.

“The fact that he supported and was setting up an Islamic caliphate for so long absolutely puts him in the category of being an Islamic terrorist … and what it does highlight is the importance of Australian citizenship.

“It shouldn’t be something handed out like lollies at a party, it is a very, very precious commodity. It comes with a lot of rights and a lot of responsibility.”

Conservative-leaning One Nation leader Pauline Hanson accused the Labor government of secrecy.

“Foreign Minister Penny Wong in December last year refused to say if more of these terrorists would return to Australia, yet from documents released in the Estimates process it’s abundantly clear they knew all along,” Hanson said in a statement.

She referenced a closed door meeting held by the Home Affairs Minister Burke in December with the group, Save the Children, which is playing a major part in repatriating ISIS-linked individuals.

Burke had asked a note-taker to leave the room during the meeting.

According to Hanson, the available meeting notes found Burke saying that: “the thinking is if people are able to get out [of Syria], there are no blockages to them returning.”

Other points he made include that the government doesn’t “want to be perceived to have been paying” to have the ISIS brides smuggled out, and that the same outcome could be achieved without government involvement.

“Then—astonishingly—departmental officials were asked to leave the room so a ‘frank discussion’ could continue behind closed doors. There is no official record of what happened next,” Hanson said.