The prime minister has not budged on the issue of 34 Islamic State brides and their children being held in a Syrian internment camp after being peppered with questions about the responsibility of the government to step in and protect the children, some of whom were born in the camp.
The women and children who originally travelled to Syria and lived under the so-called caliphate of the terrorist group have returned to the headlines in recent days, as some of them left the camp this week in an attempt to return to Australia, but were turned back for reasons still unknown. Of the 34 Australian citizens, 23 are children.
Pressed by ABC Sydney host Hamish Macdonald on the government’s responsibility to the children, Anthony Albanese said, “Well, that is the responsibility of their parents, and their mothers in particular, who made this decision … We have a firm position, which is that the mothers in this case, who made this decision to travel overseas against Australia’s national interest are the responsible ones who’ve put their children in this position.
“We can’t bring the children back without their mothers. It is their mothers that have put them in this position. And during the period of the former government, more than 40 people returned from being involved with Islamic state, not just family members, but actually some of the fighters returned during that time as well.”
McDonald asked again: “And you’ll do nothing to help these children?”
“We will do nothing to assist these people coming back to Australia. No, we won’t,” Albanese said.
Read the full article here
