Tony Burke says Australia has few options to block return of 34 women and children from Syrian camp | Australian security and counter-terrorism
Tony Burke said authorities “knew the mental state” of each of the 34 Australian women and children trapped in a detention camp in Syria but their options to prevent them from returning to Australia were limited.
The home affairs minister, who represents the south-west Sydney electorate with a high Muslim population, also warned that Pauline Hanson’s recent derogatory comments towards Muslims in Australia could incite violence.
The Australian branch of Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir could also be banned soon after Burke confirmed it was in the process of adding it to the list of hate groups under legislation passed in January.
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The new laws make it a crime to associate with, recruit, train or provide support to a designated group, with a person found guilty of “deliberately” directing the activities of a listed hate group facing up to 15 years in prison.
Eager to divert attention from its domestic problems, the Coalition this week intensified its criticism of the federal government’s response to Australians staying in the increasingly unstable and violent detention camp.
After an attempt to reach Damascus failed on Monday, 11 women and 23 Australian children remained in the Roj camp in north-east Syria, close to the borders with Türkiye and Iraq. They are the wives, widows and children of killed or imprisoned Islamic State fighters, many of whom arrived in Syria in the mid-2010s.
A temporary exclusion order was issued this week against a woman, banning her from entering Australia for up to two years.
Burke told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday that the group was “not consistent” in its ideas and beliefs.
“I can give full confidence to the community [that] we get to know different individuals; We know the moods and influential ideologies of different individuals; “They are not a cohesive group,” he said.
The minister added that he had “full confidence” in the intelligence agencies that carried out risk assessments for the group.
“The reason why a person is expelled for saying that person meets the threshold for a temporary restraining order is because what we know about that person is pretty specific.”
Under Passport LawAustralian citizens are entitled to a passport subject to limited restrictions, such as if the person is the subject of an arrest warrant.
Burke said the government was “actively making sure we were doing nothing to help them.”
“Other than a temporary exclusion order, there is no legislative power to prevent an Australian citizen from entering Australia,” he said.
Shadow defense secretary James Paterson told Sky News the women in the group should be charged with traveling to join an Islamist caliphate against advice and the law.
“Each of them should face charges if they find their way home, but frankly the priority should be to keep them offshore where they can’t harm Australia,” Paterson said.
On Thursday shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash claimed Burke had deliberately chosen not to use further dismissals because he lacked “political courage”.
“Secretary Burke has power. He has legal authority. He has public facts. He has a low threshold designed for exactly this purpose,” Cash said in a statement.
“What Minister Burke lacks is the political courage to use the law to protect Australians.”
On Sunday, Burke hit back at Cash, questioning whether he was “fit” to take on the role of shadow minister.
“One of my concerns about how the opposition have handled this is that they have effectively said that the minister should be able to compensate for this,” he said.
“Anyone with this kind of perspective is unfit to lead the country’s security.”
Guardian Australia reported that the group of women and children faced dramatically worsening conditions this week as their tents were destroyed and their belongings confiscated.
It is stated that the camp, which is managed by Kurdish authorities but is expected to be handed over to the Syrian government, may be closed soon.
When asked what the government would do for the group if the camp were to close, Burke said: “People will be in an unbearable position because of the actions entirely of their own making and the shocking decisions the parents have made.”
Burke also referred to comments made earlier this week by Hanson, who he said attempted to persuade Lakemba’s Muslim population to attack him.
The One Nation senator came under harsh criticism last week after claiming on a Sky News opinion program that he did not believe “good Muslims” existed. Federal police confirmed on Friday that they had received “a criminal report” regarding Hanson’s comments.
Burke said on Hanson’s last visit to Lakemba he was greeted with warmth and hospitality rather than harassment or protest.
“I think what’s going on here is part of Pauline Hanson’s frustration with Lakemba… it didn’t give her what she wanted,” he said.
But he warned comments like Hanson’s risked triggering further violence and division in Australia.
“This is not just cruelty [her comments]. “There’s also a national security angle here,” Burke said.
“I just tell people this: Don’t pretend to care about national security and make it harder for our institutions and make it more likely that violence will occur.”
