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Australia open to return of IS fighter’s orphaned children
CANBERRA, April 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Prime Minister Scott Morrison said
Friday he was open to allowing the return of orphaned children of an
Australian jihadist in a Syrian refugee camp following their desperate plea
for help.
Morrison said his government was working with the Red Cross so the children
could leave the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria and Australian officials
could assess them.
“Where they might be in a position to return to Australia, we will
cooperate with that process,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
“Where there are Australians who are caught up in this situation,
particularly as innocent children, we will do what I think Australians would
expect us to do on their behalf.”
The PM added that he would not put “any Australian life at risk to extract
people from these conflict zones”, a stance he has taken in recent weeks
despite pleas from their grandmother Karen Nettleton.
Morrison’s comments came as Hoda Sharrouf — the 16-year-old daughter of
Australian Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf — said she was worried
about her siblings’ health, including 17-year-old sister Zaynab who is seven
months pregnant and “very sick”.
“What about the children? What about the people that didn’t want to come
here? What about the people that are stuck here and never wanted to be here
in the first place? They don’t deserve this kind of treatment,” she told The
Sydney Morning Herald from the camp.
“We’re Australians too. Australia needs to do something about it. They need
to step up,” she said in an interview published Friday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said there were five children in the family
seeking help — Hoda, Zaynab, their eight-year-old brother Hamzeh, and
Zaynab’s two young children — Ayesha, 3, and Fatima, 2.
Sharrouf — the first Australian to have his citizenship stripped under
anti-terrorism laws — left the country for Syria in 2013 with his wife Tara
Nettleton, two daughters and three sons.
He made international headlines in 2014 when he posted an image on Twitter
of another son holding a severed head.
He is believed to have died in a 2017 American air strike alongside his
then pre-teen sons, while Nettleton reportedly died in 2015.
The fate of foreign fighters and their families has become a significant
problem for governments as the conflict against IS draws to a close.
Foreigners at the camp are from some 30 to 40 countries.
The Red Cross said Wednesday it wanted hundreds of children of foreign
fighters living in the camp to be allowed to return home.
France last month took in five orphans and is dealing with returns on a
case-by-case basis.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0859 hrs