Father of ISIS bride begging to come home says she should NEVER be allowed back in Australia
The father of an Australian woman desperate to return home after being detained in a Syrian camp for joining Islamic State says she should stay in the Middle East – insisting she left Australia of her own free will and is now lying about being ‘tricked’.
Guy Rosse-Emile, speaking from Mauritius, told The Nightly that his daughter Kirsty, who grew up in Melbourne’s south-east, travelled to Syria in 2014 with her Moroccan-born husband, Nabil Kadmiry, to live under the caliphate.
‘They went there with a view of establishing themselves in Islamic State in Syria under the caliphate,’ Mr Rosse-Emile said of this then 19-year-old daughter.
‘When she said, “Oh, I was tricked” and all that; it’s not true.’
Mr Rosse-Emile said he was ‘heartbroken’ when he learned his daughter had gone to a war zone, initially believing she was moving to Morocco to start a new life with Kadmiry’s wealthy family.
‘I said, “Well, she’s going to have a good life,” and then lo and behold, seven or eight months later she rang her mum on WhatsApp and said that she’s in Syria.
‘I said to (his then-wife) Emma, “What the hell are they doing there?” And I’m very upset with that bloke, Nabil. I don’t want to see him again.’
The 76-year-old said he has not spoken directly to Kirsty since she left Australia, with all communication going through his former wife.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile’s (pictured) father has rejected her claim that she was ‘tricked’ to moving
He believes his daughter was a ‘homemaker’ during her time in Islamic State territory, while Kadmiry fought for the terror group before being captured by Kurdish forces in 2019.
That same year, Kadmiry was stripped of his Australian citizenship under anti-terror laws.
Kirsty, now a mother of two, remains in the al Roj detention camp near the Iraqi border after surrendering to the Syrian Democratic Forces when IS was defeated. Her third child died in Syria.
Mr Rosse-Emile doubts he will ever see his daughter or grandchildren again and says he does not support her pleas to return to Australia.
‘I’d rather she stays in Syria, and Syria gets better and Syria can function as a country with a new head of state,’ he said.
He also rejected claims that Islamic State was a brutal terrorist organisation, instead accusing the Australian Government of destroying the region.
‘Australia went there and destroyed everything … so Kirsty is there in the lurch with two children,’ he said.
About 37 Australian women and children remain in al Roj camp.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile (pictured) has pleaded with the Australian Government to return
The interview comes in the wake of a political firestorm surrounding the return of two other so called ‘ISIS brides.’
On September 26, the pair, along with four children, arrived in Victoria after covertly escaping an internally displaced persons camp in Syria.
They were briefly detained in Lebanon before clearing security protocols and receiving Australian passports.
The Albanese government has maintained it did not officially facilitate their repatriation.
However Officials from the Home Affairs Department confirmed they were aware of the six people wanting to return from June, months before they arrived in Australia on September 26.
The department’s national security head Hamish Hansford said it hadn’t sought a temporary exclusion order, which can prohibit a citizen from temporarily re-entering Australia if they’re deemed a security risk based on a counter-terrorism assessment.
The risk was being managed and appropriate measures were put in place ahead of their arrival, he said.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said authorities were preparing for the arrival of more people under similar circumstances, but would not confirm how many due to possible fluctuations.
