ISIS brides apply for Australian passports in desperate bid to leave Syrian camps and return home
The wives of Islamic State members currently held in camps in northern Syria have applied for Australian passports in a bid to return home.
At least ten women and children have lodged applications with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) recently, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
A Home Affairs spokesman said the federal government ‘does not comment on the circumstances of individuals due to privacy considerations’.
It comes as a senior government source warned that granting the passports could expose Australians to a ‘detrimental security risk’, with the Syrian camps considered hotbeds of extremism.
Last week, the federal government confirmed it would continue to allow so-called ‘ISIS brides’ to return to Australia through their own means.
Under the current rules, the families are allowed to return, however the government does not provide them with assistance or conduct repatriation efforts.
The policy was confirmed by Environment Minister Murray Watt during a Senate estimates hearing on February 10.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson Jonathon Duniam branded the policy a ‘gross neglect of national security’.
Families of IS members, held in Syrian camps, are seeking to return home to Australia
‘After the worst terror attack on Australian soil, the last thing the government should be doing is leaving the return of family members of terrorists to Australia up to third parties,’ he said.
‘This is yet another fail from the Albanese Government, whose secrecy over this dangerous cohort is keeping Australians in the dark. Will we have to wait for another breach in our national security before the government acts on ISIS brides?
‘This government must take control of this situation before it’s again too late. We cannot afford to be asleep at the wheel on national security.’
In September, two women and four children linked to Islamic State fighters returned to Australia after getting themselves out of Syria via Lebanon.
They had fled the Al-Hol detention centre located in northeast Syria.
The group was then issued Australian passports after security and DNA checks, with the department briefed three months earlier that the group intended to return.
