Albanese declares he has ‘nothing but contempt’ for women seeking return
Anthony Albanese has revealed his disdain for Australian women stranded in a camp in Syria, with the opposition asking why they were given passports to return from the Middle East.
As the government prepared for a group of women and children to again attempt to leave the Roj camp in north-east Syria and fly to Australia, Albanese insisted the government could not provide support to help them return home.
“I have nothing but contempt for these people,” Albanese told ABC radio.
“The government is not providing any support or assistance in repatriating these individuals.”
Pressing the stranded children, who have no say in traveling to be part of the Islamic State caliphate, Albanese said: “I despise the parents who put these children in this situation.
“We have a firm position that those responsible for putting their children in this situation are the mothers in this case who made the decision to travel abroad against Australia’s national interests… We will do nothing to help these people return to Australia.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the government should “shut the door” on women returning to Australia.
“I don’t believe that people from another part of the world who want to bring hatred and violence to Australia, that is, people who don’t believe in our fundamental beliefs, should be coming into the country,” he said.
“It’s that simple. This government hasn’t answered the most basic questions about why these people are coming back to Australia.”
Taylor said the government “must do everything we can” to prevent the women from returning to Australia.
“And if we need to work with the government, pass legislation, tighten legislation and make sure these things don’t come back, we will do that,” he said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the news in this post on Tuesday night that 34 women and children had been given Australian passports, saying “if someone applies for a passport as a citizen they will be given one”.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said it was wrong for the government to suggest that all Australians were entitled to a passport.
“Passport application may be rejected on national security grounds,” he said.
“So why is the government issuing passports and providing support to this group, and how can it claim that it is not helping with repatriation?
“These are people who chose to go to Syria to support the ISIS death cult, which is listed as the terrorist organization that inspired the Bondi terror attack.”
Duniam also questioned why the government issued a temporary exclusion order to just one and not all.
Deputy immigration minister Matt Thistlethwaite previously said getting a passport “is a right that everyone has as an Australian citizen. So I, as a government official or anyone else, cannot stop that.”
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said it was “pretty shameful” that the government had not actively facilitated the return of women and children for a group in 2022, as the Morrison government did in 2019.
“These are Australian citizens. They need to be brought back and the concerns should be addressed in Australia,” Faruqi said.
“These people have been left to languish in refugee camps for too long. If there are concerns they need to be brought back and these are people Australia can’t just turn into stateless people,” he says.
Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said the women had agreed to work with security agencies when they returned to Australia.
