Labor Dismisses Coalition Plan to Criminalise Help for ISIS ‘Brides’ and Children

The Australian federal opposition is arguing for the criminalisation of any assistance given to residents linked to assisting the ISIS “brides” and children in trying to return to Australia.

The debate over their fate has continued for weeks as the 34 women and children attempted to leave the Al Roj camp on Feb. 16 to reach Damascus so they could fly to Australia.

Shadow foreign affairs minister Ted O’Brien said the criminalisation proposal would close what he described as a loophole allowing “self-managed returns” facilitated by third parties.

He argued the Albanese government had created, or at least expanded, the gap.

“And under that arrangement, it commits non-government third parties to organise terrorists and their affiliates to enter Australia, and they can do that on their own, without government oversight, without government approval,” he told RN Breakfast on Jan. 23.

“This proposed law closes that loophole, brings back responsibility to lie with government, and doesn’t allow government to effectively outsource the repatriation of terrorist sympathisers back to Australia,” he added.

O’Brien said the new offence would apply broadly, including to charities and NGOs. Asked whether children would be exempt, he said there would be no “automatic exemption” for kids. He added that the Coalition is looking at introducing the policy to the Parliament at the earliest date possible.

The group is linked to dead or detained ISIS fighters, and were prevented and turned back by local authorities during their attempted departure.

Labor Dismisses ‘Headline Grab’

Labor Cabinet Minister Mark Butler said the proposal appeared to be nothing more than a headline grabber.

“This looks like a bit of a grab for a headline more than a serious policy,” Butler told ABC Mornings, adding that the legal framework governing returns was introduced by the previous Coalition government.

“Angus Taylor was a minister in that government. Those laws govern the return of 40 people during the term of the last Coalition government, not just women and children, but ISIS fighters themselves,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was acting under the same constitutional and legal constraints faced by the Coalition when it was in office.

“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 that there are some limits on what can be done, but I repeat, our position is we are not repatriating people and we’re not providing assistance,” Albanese told reporters on Feb. 23.

Aid Group Slams ‘Extraordinary’ Plan

Save the Children has strongly criticised the Coalition’s proposal describing it as “extraordinary.”

The opposition’s O’Brien confirmed NGOs found to be “assisting foreign fighters, families or sympathisers of terrorists” would be caught under the proposal.

“Yes, it would,” he said, in response to questions, but noted that humanitarian aid alone did not count.

Save the Children argued that children need to be protected.

“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,” the group’s CEO, Mat Tinkler, said in a statement.

“As a humanitarian organisation we abide by principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity … In the case of innocent children stranded in camps in northeastern Syria our role has been twofold: providing them with lifesaving humanitarian relief and advocating for national governments to repatriate their citizens,” it added.

Later during a media interview, Jonno Duniam, the shadow minister for home affairs, clarified that the proposal isn’t about targeting an individual group, like Save the Children, it’s about targeting “anyone who breaks the law.”