Mayors and councilors from Western Sydney are calling on the Federal Government to explain why the relatives of suspected ISIS combatants were repatriated from Syria to their local areas without any prior consultation.
Hundreds of families who have escaped from ISIS and settled in those areas are now said to be re-living traumatic experiences with the controversial repatriation of the so-called ISIS brides and their children into their neighbourhoods. There are some survivors from the ISIS torture and rape camps among those who have for years lobbied the Federal Government not to allow that to happen, yet it did and unexpectedly so.
“You wouldn’t put Hitler’s wife in the middle of a Jewish settlement”, Mayor of Fairfield Frank Carbone said in a televised interview with Channel 10 journalist Waleed Aly, labelling him “out of touch”. This independent Mayor also suggested that those former ISIS members “have committed a treason under Commonwealth Criminal Code section 80” and could be stripped of their citizenship, never to return to Australia. Together with Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun and Campbelltown Mayor George Greiss, Mayor Carbone said that they are “worthy of discussion” with the federal government and security agencies, and not a “dumping ground” for any last-minute policy decisions.
What do security experts think?
Professor Samina Yasmeen from the University of Western Australia, who is the Head of the Department of International Relations, Asian Studies and Politics and Director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies, commented for Fairfield Local News that it is very important not to exclude and criticize the repatriated children but to jointly participate in their re-education and reintegration.
“Long-term impacts on security globally and for Australia would be more negative had those people stayed in Syrian camps with terrible living conditions, than bringing them here. Getting them re-educated and reintegrated into the Australian society is paramount. Local mayors and communities need to be part of the solution, as well as local Muslim community leaders”, Professor Yasmeen said. She also reminded not to ignore the fact that some of those people could have participated, willingly or not, in the ISIS idea of global jihad, and for that all “relatives of former ISIS fighters who had been repatriated must be placed under continuous monitoring by the government agencies for the foreseeable future”. However, children in particular should not be ostracised but provided with adequate support mechanisms in order to successfully reintegrate.
ISIS torture camp survivors living in the neighbourhoods
Milan Maksimovic, who in 2021 received a citizen of the year Fairfield’s humanitarian award for his humanitarian work with persecuted minorities from the Middle East, said for Fairfield Local News that he met with victims who personally experienced serious harm and lost family members who were killed in front of them by ISIS. Maksimovic remarked:
“The Australian government is trying to provide safe harbour for family members of the terrorist group leaders who took part in torturing innocent civilians. But the government has failed to consider that real victims of torture and rape camps live today in Western Sydney. Imagine the frustration of those survivors to see in the news that the immediate relatives of ISIS are coming so close to their new homes. Australia is a very big country with people with big hearts to welcome everybody. But why did the government not consider bringing ISIS family members to some rural areas or some other states, perhaps at least 500 kms from victims.”
Since 2017, thousands of refugees from Syria escaping ISIS have resettled in Western Sydney, with local mayors asking for ongoing government support to help them resettle, find jobs, and integrate. It seems that there is a steep and uncertain road ahead for all involved in this process with the most recent arrivals from Syria.