Australia bans a citizen with alleged links to militant IS group from returning from Syria

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s government on Wednesday banned an Australian citizen with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group from returning from a detention camp in Syria.

The Australian is among a group of 34 women and children who had planned to fly from Damascus to Australia on Monday but were turned back by Syrian authorities to the Roj detention camp due to procedural problems.

Former Islamic State fighters from multiple countries, their wives and children have been detained in camps since the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said one of the group had been assessed by Australian security agencies as meeting a risk threshold to be banned from entering the country, despite being a citizen. He did not identify that individual or say how long the ban would last.

“I can confirm that one individual in this cohort has been issued a temporary exclusion order, which was made on advice from security agencies,” Burke said in a statement.

“At this stage, security agencies have not provided advice that other members of the cohort meet the required legal thresholds for temporary exclusion orders,” Burke added.

Burke has the power to use temporary exclusion orders to prevent high-risk citizens from returning to Australia for up to two years.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday reiterated his position announced a day earlier that his government would not help repatriate the latest group.

“These are people who chose to go overseas to align themselves with an ideology which is the caliphate, which is a brutal, reactionary ideology and that seeks to undermine and destroy our way of life,” Albanese told reporters.

He was referring to the militants’ capture of wide swaths of land more than a decade ago that stretched across Syria and Iraq, territory where IS established its so-called caliphate. Jihadis from foreign countries traveled to Syria at the time to join the IS. Over the years, they had families and raised children there.

“We are doing nothing to repatriate or to assist these people. I think it’s unfortunate that children are caught up in this, that’s not their decision, but it’s the decision of their parents or their mother,” Albanese added.