‘Risks’ in teen repatriation from Syria

Australia has not been able to repatriate an Australian boy in a Syrian prison due to safety concerns and worries over radicalisation.

Department of Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo says there hasn’t been a significant change of conditions on the ground – despite ISIS being pushed out of the prison – to warrant a change in the department’s position.

Mr Pezzullo told Senate estimates on Monday certain conditions needed to be satisfied before the department goes to the government with a plan to repatriate its citizens, including the safety of Australian officers.

He said there also needed to be a scenario where “there wouldn’t be an increased and unreasonable and unacceptable threat to community safety back here in Australia”.

“I would draw a link to the director-general of security’s reference to his concern and ASIO’s concern about radicalisation and violent extremism amongst minors.”

The 17-year-old boy said he was shot by an Apache helicopter attack on the prison in January and expressed fears for his life in an audio message to his family in Australia.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, with US air support, have since regained control of the ISIS-run prison.

But Mr Pezzullo said, from his point of view, “the conditions have not sufficiently changed on the ground”.

Labor senator Kristina Keneally questioned whether leaving the boy in Syria would pose a greater risk of radicalisation than if he was repatriated.

“You talk about the risk of radicalisation – surely leaving children in a situation where they are vulnerable, not only to radicalisation, but to extreme violence and death, enhances the risk they’ll become radicalised?”

Mr Pezzullo said that was a risk “that has to be balanced amongst all the other risks”.

“It is really a question of risk appetite,” he said.

There are a total of around 60 women and children in the country claiming to have links to Australian citizenship, the Senate committee heard.

 

 

Source: 7NEWS

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