Renewed Call for the Release of Australian Children in Syrian Detention Camps: Families Express Deep Concern

Charity Save the Children has expressed that Australian women and children held in a Syrian camp are “devastated” by the federal government’s decision not to facilitate their return to Australia.

On Monday, 34 Australians, associated with the self-declared Islamic State (IS) group, attempted to leave the al-Roj camp in northern Syria. However, due to an administrative complication, they were sent back.

Mat Tinkler, CEO of Save the Children Australia, shared with SBS News, “These individuals have endured nearly seven years in a remote desert camp in Syria.”

“It’s an incredibly harsh environment, especially for children,” he added.

“To have had a flicker of hope that they might finally return to Australia, only to be forced back to those camps, must be unimaginably devastating for them.”

‘They’re innocent’

The group has been living in the camp in poor conditions since 2019, when the IS group collapsed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted that the federal government will not assist in their repatriation.

“We followed the law, and we followed the advice of the authorities … I have nothing but contempt for these people,” he told ABC Radio Thursday morning.

The decision has been criticised by various human rights organisations.

“We cannot hold children responsible for the decisions of their parents. They’re innocent, they’re vulnerable, they’re Australian citizens, and my view is the role of our nation’s leaders is to advocate for Australian citizens, especially the most vulnerable,” Tinkler said.

“I’ve been to these camps, I’ve looked these children in their eyes, I’ve heard their pleas with thick Australian accents to bring them home, that they’re vulnerable and they need our help.

“That’s why we are advocating so fearlessly for them to be brought home.”

In the same interview Thursday morning, Albanese said the government “can’t bring the children back without their mothers”, and their mothers “have put them in this position”.

“The story of these women is varied. Some may have gone willingly, knowing the risks. Some were children themselves when they were taken against their will by their parents … it’s not a homogeneous story for all of these women,” Tinkler said

“At the end of the day, if they have made a poor choice and they need to be held accountable for that, the best place for that to occur is here in Australia.

“We cannot ignore the fate of their vulnerable and innocent children while we deal with those decisions and those consequences.”

Temporary exclusion order not a ‘solution’

On Wednesday, the government also confirmed that it banned one of them from returning to the country by issuing a temporary exclusion order (TEO).

A TEO allows the home affairs minister to temporarily ban citizens from re-entering the country for up to two years.

Tinkler said the TEO is not a “solution”.

“The temporary exclusion orders just kick the can down the road for another two years. They don’t take any regard to the interest of any children who may be involved,” he said.

“There are alternatives that the government can use. The women in the past have volunteered to be subject to terrorism control orders.”

He warned that “there is a real risk of children exposed in these camps for long periods of time, that they’re exposed to radical views”.

“That’s one of the reasons why we say the shorter period of time these children spend there, the better for their wellbeing,” he said.

However, Opposition home affairs spokesperson Jonathon Duniam, said the order prompted “more questions than answers”, claiming multiple individuals from the group had travelled to the same area to aid a designated terrorist organisation.

Opposition calling the government to ‘shut the door’

The provision of passports to Australians in al-Roj has also sparked political debate among parliamentarians.

Pressed on whether the government had issued passports to the group, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said all citizens had a legal right to receive official travel documents.

“If anyone applies for a passport as a citizen, they are issued with a passport, in the same way that if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday night.

The Opposition has criticised the decision, with leader Angus Taylor saying that “if we need to work with the government and pass legislation, to tighten legislation, to make sure that they can’t come back, we will do that”.

“I was clear about this on day one in this role. We need to see this government shut the door,” he said in a press conference in Gold Coast.

However, humanitarian advocates point to a window of legal responsibility that can’t be ignored.

“The Australian government is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s the most ratified treaty on earth. And that treaty requires the best interests of these children to be taken into account,” Tinkler said,

“Instead of doing things like issuing temporary exclusion orders … the obligation of the Australian government is to put the best interests of those children, its citizens, first and make sure that we bring them to safety.”

With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.

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