One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has clashed with Labor minister Tanya Plibersek over the government’s handling of the cohort’s return.

ISIS brides attempt return to Australia

(Source: Sunrise)

Four Islamic State brides and nine children have reportedly booked plane tickets back to Australia and hope to depart Syria within days after fleeing a detention camp.

The cohort consists of Australian citizens and it is their second attempt to return to Australia since February, according to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The group is expected to be leaving Damascus, Syria’s capital, in the coming days.

Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek said the government is not helping the so-called ISIS brides return and will apply the “full force” of the law if they make it to Australia’s borders.

“If people have broken the law overseas, they’ll face the full force of Australian law,” Plibersek told Sunrise host Nat Barr on Monday morning.

“We’ve got our security and intelligence agencies obviously gathering information on this cohort and the broader cohort to make sure that we know as much about them as we possibly can.”

Plibersek said the government was bound by existing law, which requires Australian citizens who request passports to receive them, but noted that’s as far as loyalty will extend if the law has been broken.

“There’s nothing to stop us if these people manage to make it back; they can be picked up at the airport and face the full force of the Australian law,” she said.

The government has already issued one temporary exclusion order on the basis of advice from security agencies.

Labor has ‘no sympathy’ for ISIS brides

“We’ve got no sympathy for people who have gone to fight with ISIS or support ISIS overseas,” Plibersek said. “People who took kids there, you know, it’s just impossible to believe that anybody would take their children into that warzone at that terrible time.”

When asked about children being separated from mothers who face jail time, Plibersek said it’s a consequence of breaking the law.

“If these women have broken the law overseas, then they will face jail. And that is a decision they’ve made as adults,” she said.

“If people break the law, then they have to face the consequences of breaking the law.

“Of course it’s sad for children to be separated from mothers who are in jail, that’s happening right now in Australia … but if they made a decision to go there and fight with an organisation that was murdering, raping, enslaving people, then we’ve got zero tolerance for that,” she said.

Government not doing enough: Joyce

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the women were complicit in the horrific crimes committed by Islamic State and therefore should be blocked from returning to Australia.

“These are women, as they call themselves, wives, who were a party to some of the most horrendous crimes in the history of the world,” Joyce said.

“They chose to go there. They were not taken there in handcuffs.”

Joyce called for the law to be changed to prevent the group’s return, arguing that if legislation isn’t strong enough to keep them out, Parliament should strengthen it immediately.

“If we got a temporary exclusion on one, we should be doing everything to get a temporary exclusion on the lot,” he said.

Plibersek defended the government’s position, pointing out that 40 people, including ISIS fighters, returned to Australia when Joyce was deputy prime minister.

“It’s the difference between what you say and what you do,” Plibersek said.

Barr noted that under the Morrison government, eight orphans and one newborn also returned in 2019, but Plibersek insisted the real number was 40.

“When you were the second-most powerful person in the country, 40 people came back, including fighters,” Plibersek hit back at Joyce.

The government maintains it is following the advice of security and intelligence agencies, with Plibersek stating authorities are watching the group very closely and may take further actions if they make it back to Australia.