IS fighters’ children: Trauma plans in place when they return to Australia

POLICE and national security agencies have detailed plans to manage a wave of children of Australian Islamic State terrorists expected to return home from the Middle East.

Khaled Sharrouf, whose Australian citizenship was revoked, with boys believed to be his sons in front of the Islamic State flag in an image posted on Twitter. Source: Supplied

• Khaled Sharrouf stripped of Australian citizenship

POLICE and national security agencies have detailed plans to manage a wave of children of Australian Islamic State terrorists expected to return home from the Middle East.

The children, likely to ­include fighter Khaled Sharrouf’s family, will be assessed for any threat they might pose to the community, the trauma they have suffered by witnessing the conflict, and whether they have committed crimes themselves.

The children will most ­likely be home-schooled ­before any attempt is made to reintegrate them into the mainstream school system, a process commonly used when dealing with trauma survivors.

A boy security agencies believe to be Australian Khaled Sharrouf’s son holds the head of a soldier in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

High-level security officials have revealed the prospect of children and family members arriving back in Australia was no longer unlikely, but rather a “distinct possibility”, particularly as IS’s grip in Iraq and Syria begins to wane.

About 70 Australian children have either travelled to the conflict zone with their families or been born there.

“They will be considered on a case-by-case basis,” a senior government official said.

Boys believed to be Khaled Sharrouf's eldest sons cover their identity.

The Sharrouf children are currently in Syria, though their guardianship arrangements are unclear.

Their mother, Tara Nettleton, was confirmed deceased last year and their father, Khaled Sharrouf, was thought to have died in a missile strike.

This is now strongly ­believed to be untrue.

Anticipating their arrival, NSW officials began working with their federal counterparts to intercept the children at the airport and then assess if and how they can be integrated.