‘You’re welcome back’: Kyle Sandilands defends return of ISIS brides and children to Australia

Kyle Sandilands has reacted to criticism of the ISIS brides and their children who have been returned to Australia from a Syrian refugee camp.

Kyle Sandilands has come out in support of ISIS brides and their children who have been returned to Australia from a Syrian refugee camp.

The KIIS FM host said on Thursday that he fully supported the return of the four women and their 13 children, who were repatriated to NSW on Saturday after an ASIO operation.

“They are Australian citizens who were tricked, young girls tricked into sex slavery, getting bashed and threatened,” Sandilands told listeners.

“They’ve lived in a Syrian refugee camp for several years with children. I welcome you with open arms, you’re welcome back to the country. It’s very strange how a lot of these journalists are acting like they’re the horrible terrorists.”

The women and their children had been held in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps in the north eastern Syria region known as Rojava since March 2019.

Some had travelled with husbands who became ISIS fighters while others were taken to the war-torn region as teenagers and children by their parents before marrying local men.

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Australian women and children at the Al-Hawl camp in northeast Syria. Picture: Supplied

The Albanese government’s decision to repatriate the families has been criticised by the Coalition and commentators including Sky News host Peta Credlin.

On Wednesday, Nine News broadcast footage of one of the families visiting McDonald‘s, Kmart and playgrounds in Sydney’s southwest.

“Yesterday there was an article saying they’ve gone to a McDonald’s and a Kmart and I was like, ‘So what? Just like anyone else can,’” Sandilands said.

It comes after Credlin, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, slammed the Albanese government for failing to explain the decision.

“It’s completely shirked its duty to explain how the safety of a few women who rejected Australia to join terrorist groups abroad trumps the safety of the wider population,” she said on her Sky News show.

“They shouldn’t have terrorists or terrorist sympathisers living in a street next to them. Whether you agree with the decision or you don’t, nonetheless it’s dead wrong for the Prime Minister to hide from something as big as this. If you want to make a decision like this, then have the guts to front the camera and defend it. No one wants to see children suffer for the crimes of their parents, but that can’t excuse the Albanese government’s total failure even to explain, let alone to justify, letting jihadi families return to Australia.”

Kyle Sandilands says the women ‘are welcome back’.

Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan said earlier this week the government needs to “come clean” on the next steps.

“What are the next steps to keep Australians safe to make sure that these returnees are properly monitored? What is the cost of that?” Mr Tehan told Sky News Australia.

“But more importantly, two of the women have got husbands back in those camps in Syria — now is the plan to see them come back as well? And what will the Australian people know about their activities in Syria when they were active members of ISIS?”

Speaking to Nine’s Today on Wednesday, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she understood the community concern and would work with the Commonwealth “in terms of managing the risks around this”.

“I also suggested that NSW Police will continue to investigate to see if there has been offences committed previously but this will be an ongoing investigation,” she said.

Ms Webb added that it was up to the federal government to monitor the women and children, as NSW does not have the authority.

“I’ll leave it to the Commonwealth to comment on what they’re doing,” she said.

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce on Monday slammed the decision, saying the children born under ISIS rule pose a “real risk” to Australia and should be left overseas regardless of any claim to citizenship.

Mr Joyce suggested the parents had made the choice for the children.

Kamalle Dabboussy with his daughter Mariam Dabboussy and her daughters. Picture: Supplied

“They chose to go and be part of a terrorist organisation that was murdering people, raping people, destroying the cultural heritage of countries, and the children that were born overseas are citizens of wherever they were born,” he told Seven‘s Sunrise.

“As a former deputy chair of the National Security Committee, this will cost millions and millions of dollars to monitor them.”

However, Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said we should not visit the sins of the parents on the children.

“[ISIS] were a disgusting organisation that did disgusting things, but … a number of these women were taken as children to Syria,” she said.

“They were children themselves when they were taken and they have children now who are Australian citizens growing up in some of the most dangerous places on earth. I understand why people are concerned and it is absolutely vital that we continue to take the advice of our security agencies that these women stay in touch with people who are prepared to supervise them and in many cases, they will be for a long time, but we need to get these kids home safely and get the kids into normal schools, surrounded by family that love them, integrating into the Australian way of life.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton last week insisted the families could be a security risk.

“I do worry about people coming back from the theatre of war, particularly when they’ve been in the circumstance where they’ve been mixing with people who hate our country and hate our way of life,” the former Home Affairs Minister told Sky News.

“The Prime Minister needs to stand up today to explain to the Australian public what measures they’ve got in place. On my collective experience and what I know, I don’t think it’s in our country’s best interest.”