A Liberal senator has called for “mercy” for the 23 Australian children detained in a Syrian camp, as he warned that leaving the group to languish in detention risked making the situation worse for them and the Australian community in the future.
After the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, this week suggested the children held in al-Roj camp were “Isis sympathisers”, the backbencher Andrew McLachlan again broke from party lines to appeal for compassion and a resolution to their ongoing plight.
The group of 23 children and 11 women – the wives and widows of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters – has been at the centre of a domestic political furore since their failed attempt to leave the camp in north-east Syria in late February.
The Albanese government is refusing to assist their repatriation and has expressed “contempt” for the women, while conceding it has few options to prevent the Australian citizens from returning home. One woman has been issued with a temporary exclusion order that prevents her entry to Australia for up to two years.
The Taylor-led opposition argues the government could do more to prevent their return and has drafted legislation that would make it an offence to assist the group.
The group has no immediate prospect of flying out of Syria, which has shut its airspace after the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran reignited hostilities across the Middle East, leaving them in limbo.
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In a speech to parliament, McLachlan acknowledged the situation was a “considerable ethical dilemma” for the parliament and the country.
But amid the increasingly incendiary debate, the South Australian said: “I’m going to inject one concept that has not been spoken about, and that’s mercy for the children.”
The Guardian last week spoke with several young children at the camp, including six-year-old Layla, an Australian girl born in the camp who imagined Australia as a place with “an ice-cream shop” and where Bluey and Bingo live.
“I do not think it is weak or backing away from the protection of our own people to have some regard for these children, for they are the affected innocents from their parents’ tragic attraction to a horrible ideology. I think it is incumbent upon us all in public life to sometimes leave behind the binary and confront, head on, a difficult and intractable dilemma,” he said.
In a subsequent statement to Guardian Australia, McLachlan did not explicitly call on the federal government to repatriate the 34 women and children as it did for another group of IS-linked families detained in Syria in 2022.
However, he warned that if the children’s circumstances were “not actively managed” then “we risk making the situation worse for both them and the Australian community into the future”.
The argument that leaving the children to languish in the camp would heighten the risk of radicalisation – and in turn increase the risk to Australia when they returned in the future – was used by Labor MPs to defend the 2022 repatriation.
“We also must have a mature public discourse about how we support, where necessary, their deradicalisation and reintegration into society. Ignoring this poses significant risks to our security,” McLachlan said.
“The circumstances of each adult needs to be assessed to manage a pathway forward weighing public safety and finding a sustainable resolution keeping in mind these Australian women have not been charged with any crime.
“It is vital the government is open and transparent with the public about their preparations.”
McLachlan has emerged as an often lone voice inside the Coalition appealing for a softer tone on immigration, having previously rebuked his colleagues’ use of the phrase “mass migration” as “inflammatory and unhelpful”.
On Monday, he crossed the floor with the former shadow immigration minister Paul Scarr to vote in favour of censuring Pauline Hanson over her comments about Australian Muslims after the Coalition resolved to oppose the move.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
