Karl Stefanovic says ISIS brides and their children should not be allowed back into Australia
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Karl Stefanovic explodes over move to bring ISIS families back to Australia in fiery clash with Bill Shorten – accusing ex-Labour leader of secretly agreeing with him
- 16 ISIS brides and 42 children in Syria are sent back to Australia
- Karl Stefanovic said ‘there was no way’ those families should be allowed back
- Bill Shorten noted that young children were stranded in the Middle Eastern country
- Stefanovic said he didn’t think Shorten would support it ‘if you had a choice’
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Karl Stefanovic has clashed with Bill Shorten after declaring that Islamic State’s brides stranded in Syria and their children should not be returned to Australia.
The cabinet’s national security committee will meet on Tuesday to formally approve a rescue plan to repatriate more than a dozen families who recently underwent “risk assessments” following a secret ASIO mission to the war-torn country.
Sixteen Australian women and 42 children have been detained for three and a half years in the al-Roj refugee camp in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border after the fall of Islamic State in March 2019.
The Today Show host on Tuesday morning said there was “no way in the world” that those families would be allowed to return to Australia after they left to join their husbands fighting for the terror group.
Karl Stefanovic has clashed with Bill Shorten after declaring that Islamic State’s brides and their children stranded in Syria cannot be returned to Australia
The former Labor leader kept quiet about his feelings on the matter, saying Australians would like to know that “natural security is intact”.
“I mean, a lot of these kids are of course under the age of six and they had nothing to say about what happened to them, but it’s a matter of national security and there’s probably not much more I can add,” the said. Mr Shorten. the breakfast show.
Stefanovic then said that Mr Shorten’s comments made it sound like he didn’t support the move.
“No, not at all,” argued Mr. Shorten.
“I have no sympathy for some of those guys who went there, no sympathy at all, but if you’re a kid under six, don’t let anyone pretend they actually asked their permission.
“I see both points of view.”
Mr Shorten said it was a matter of national security and noted that there were children under six who would have to return to Australia
But his comments were not enough to convince Stefanovic, who said he did not believe Mr Shorten would support the move if he had “a choice”.
‘Oh no, if I’ve conveyed that, that’s not correct at all’, the Minister of National Services responded.
“I want to reassure people that it’s national security first, that’ll be the considerations, a lot of these kids are under six, so I’m not going to pretend you’re just giving up Australian citizens under six.”
The women and children are taken to a third country in the Middle East before returning to Australia.
“I think if you make the decision to go abroad with someone and fight for the Islamic State, you make the decision as a family, there is no way in the world that you should be allowed to come back here,” he said. Stefanovic.
The federal government’s controversial move to reverse its policy to ban foreign fighters and those who fled to Syria and Iraq to aid them has divided opinion in Australia.
Former ADF intelligence analyst Shane Healey previously told The Project Australia was ‘100 per cent’ obliged to bring the families home.
The federal government’s controversial move to reverse policies to ban foreign fighters and those who fled to Syria and Iraq to help them have met with divisions in Australia. (pictured is Australian woman Zehra Duman (center), seen with Free Burma Rangers aid workers in Syria)
“I don’t see how we can get refugees from Sudan, Afghanistan and other war-torn countries and leave Australian citizens in such a terrible state.”
He stressed that women and children rescued from the detention camp will not be immediately transported to Australia and will need further examinations before they can go home, a process that could take months.
“They’re going to take them to a host country somewhere in the Middle East and give them a holistic assessment… psychological, educational, medical and that takes weeks and then slowly unpacking whether it’s trauma or medical issues and then they start building up to integrate back into Australia,” explained Mr Healey.
“Most young kids probably don’t even speak English or have had any formal education, so that would be one of the processes.”
The project’s Waleed Aly said what he described was comparable to other deradicalisation programs, which have a “slight” track record abroad.
But Mr Healey was confident that families would be reintegrated into Australia without a hitch, despite some public outcry.