ISIS brides: Tony Burke had confidential meetings with Save the Children over women returning to Australia
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke held secret talks with Save the Children before the ISIS brides were repatriated to Australia and instructed a senior public official to leave the room to confer with advocates seeking their return.
Meeting minutes obtained by Australian It shows Mr Burke rejecting official requests for help for Australians stranded in northern Syria from charity executives leading the effort. Notes prepared by an official who attended the June session say Mr. Burke suggested “there might be a way to achieve the same result without government commitments.”
Commenting on Mr Burke’s initial remarks, the official said: “The idea is that if people can get out, there will be no impediment to their return.”
In the written summary, Mr Burke appears to emphasize that “the government did not want to be perceived as paying to kidnap them” and expressed the group’s gratitude for the media’s silence on the repatriation plans.
The official described being removed from private conversations between Mr Burke, Save the Children representatives and campaigner Kamalle Dabboussy, the father of a previously repatriated ISIS bride.
“Kamalle asked to speak openly, was given a small delegation and was given a commitment that nothing discussed would be shared unless agreed to by the minister,” the email said.
“At this stage, the minister has asked me to leave so that an open discussion can take place.”
Following the meeting, Mr Dabboussy and Save the Children CEO Mat Tinkler wrote a letter requesting assistance in issuing passports for brides leaving Syria; This contrasted with Mr. Burke’s on-the-record stance against assurances given to Kurds in Syrian camps.
In October it was revealed that a group of six Australians, including two women and four children, had quietly returned to Australia from Syria in late September.
Despite allegations of a cover-up, the Australian Government said it did not assist the group in returning to or returning to Australia, insisting they had made their own personal travel arrangements.
But Greg Barton, Professor of Global Islamic Policy at Deakin University, said the Government could provide “a lot of assistance” even if it did not remove the Australians themselves.
“I think there will be quiet negotiations,” he said.
“This planning and negotiation would take months.
“I’m sure there would be a lot of coordination.”
The two women, believed to be sisters, escaped from the notorious Al-Hawl detention camp in northeast Syria with their four children in early June.
The group of six quickly reached Lebanon, more than 500 kilometers away, where they were reportedly detained while trying to cross the border before arriving at the Australian Embassy in Beirut on June 6.
They went through identity and security screening before being issued Australian passports.
The Home Office announced that two of the four children were born in Syria and had to apply for Australian citizenship due to their origins.
The group then flew on a commercial flight from Beirut to Melbourne on 26 September.
