Updated ,first published
The father of Janai Safar, one of the so-called “ISIS brides” returning to Australia, is expected to be at Sydney Airport to try to greet his daughter amid expectations she will be arrested by police soon after touching down on Thursday evening.
Safar, who previously vowed not to return to Australia, will arrive in Sydney with her 9-year-old son, who was born in Syria and has spent his entire life living in Islamic State-controlled territory or Syrian detention camps.
A separate family group of three women and eight children, including grandmother Kawsar Abbas and daughters Zahra and Zeinab Ahmed, will arrive in Melbourne on Thursday evening after transiting through Doha.
A source close to the family said they were unsure what offences Safar could be charged with, but speculated it could be related to either entering a designated exclusion zone or foreign incursion offences.
The former nursing student said in 2019 that she would never go back to Australia as she feared being treated like a criminal, jailed and her son being taken away from her.
“It was my decision to come here to go away from where women are naked on the street. I don’t want my son to be raised around that,” Safar told The Australian.
“I didn’t train or kill anyone. I just sat at home, and they will put me in jail, they will take my child off me. Why? I’m a Muslim.”
As the Coalition accused the government of failing to block the women from returning to Australia, Education Minister Jason Clare declared he had faith in the Australian Federal Police’s ability to integrate the children into Australian society.
“They know what they’re doing. This is not their first rodeo,” Clare told ABC News Breakfast.
“I trust in the words of the AFP Commissioner yesterday, when she said that some of these women will be arrested when they arrive and others will be subject to further investigation.”
Clare said the children who had been stranded in the camps deserved a shot at a new life in Australia.
“Kids don’t get to choose who their parents are, and these children have seen the sorts of things that no child should ever be exposed to,” he said. “It’s going to take time for these children to reintegrate into Australian society.”
Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson says the expected return of several ISIS brides into the state represents “an unacceptable threat to community safety and social cohesion”.
“The Victorian Liberals and Nationals believe any adult who has left Australia to align themselves with a barbaric terrorist organisation should not be welcomed back into our state,” Ms Wilson said.
“Victorians need certainty and reassurance. Premier Allan must immediately explain what measures will be taken to manage these individuals and guarantee that community safety will not be jeopardised by their return.”
Gamel Kheir, Secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, has branded the political debate over the return of 13 women and children with Islamic State links to Australia “disgusting”.
“I am not a defender of them, but I am a defender of the rule of law,” he said. “Throw them in jail if they are guilty but they are Australian citizens and the law shouldn’t apply selectively. They have a right to return home.”
Kheir said the children who had been stranded in camps in northern Syria had played no part in where they ended up and deserved to be rehabilitated and start a new life in Australia.
“It is disgusting that politicians are seeking to make political mileage out of this. This issue has become an Islamophobic free for all,” he said.
Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said: “I think many Australians will be disconcerted to know that these could be their neighbours next door.”
Paterson told Sky News: “The revelations that some of these people will be charged with criminal offences when they land in Australia is evidence why they should not have been granted passports and why they should have had temporary exclusion orders applied to protect our country. But Labor obviously secretly wanted these people back in the country, and they’ve got their wish today.”
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
