ISIS wives seek Australian control orders

Australian wives of Islamic State fighters being held in Syria make stunning bargain for repatriation.

Some of the 66 Australian women and children at the Al-Hawl camp in northeast Syria.

The wives of Islamic State fighters being held in Syria have made an extraordinary offer to the ­government, volunteering to be placed under the most onerous conditions of Australia’s control order regime if repatriated.

A formal proposal to the governme­nt was made this week by lawyers representing at least 11 women and 25 children trapped in the Al-Hawl camp, offering for them to be placed on control order­s with their consent.

Under that offer, all women and children older than 14 could be restricted from associating with certain people, visiting particula­r locations, banned from accessing social media and be subject to strict reporting requirements and curfews if they return to Australia.

There is nothing in the proposal that would stop them from being charged or prosecuted for any offence, and the Australian Federal Police would still be able to investigate any crimes they may have committed — including via formal interviews — while the control order was in place.

Just seven people in Australia have been subject to a control order since the regime was introduced in 2005.

The Weekend Australian understands all of the women from Melbourne in the camp, along with some from Sydney, have formally­ agreed that the proposal be made.

Sydney man Kamalle Dabboussy confirmed that his daughter Mariam was among them.

The proposal was put in writing to Scott Morrison, Home Affairs­ Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne earlier this week. The governmen­t has yet to respond to the offer and Mr Dutton did not respond to questions on Friday.

So far, only eight orphaned children have been repatriated after spending time in the camp.

Asked about the Australians in the camp this week, Mr Dutton said intelligence agencies believed “some of these women are as bad as any male combatants — terrorists — that they’ve seen over there” and that they posed a terro­r threat if they return.

Sarah Condon from law firm Stary Norton Halphen, repres­enting the 36 women and children, revealed that the offer had been made and said others in the camp might also agree to such a proposal.

“We have proposed the impos­ition of control orders on our ­clients on a consent basis,” Ms Condon said. “In our view, this significant offer would allay any security concerns raised by ­government ministers as the prim­ary reason not to repatriate these Australians immediately …

“Control orders have been used ­effectively in the past, imposin­g significant restrictions on a ­person’s rights and liberties without them being charged, prosecuted and found guilty of a criminal offence.”

Labor home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally would not comment on the proposal’s merits, saying the government and security agencies were best placed to determine if a person should be put under such an order.

The proposal does not suggest how the women and children would be returned to Australia. The government has said it was too dangerous to send Australia­ns into Syria to retrieve them, and that there were concerns about a lack of resources to monitor the women if they returned.

Ms Condon said that, by the women agreeing to the ­orders, it would be a “far more cost-effect­ive” approach than to have them secretly monitored by agencies.

The proposal has come amid uncertainty surrounding the 66 Australian women and children being held in northeast Syria, after Turkey’s military incursion into the region this month.

Since then, about half of the 400 people guarding the 68,000 Islamic State family members at the Al-Hawl camp have been redeployed­ to bolster Kurdish forces further north, The Times reported this week. Violence from hardcore Islamic State supporters in the camp has increased, as have attempted escapes.

Former Melbourne woman Kawsar Abbas, who is in the camp with 10 of her children and grandchildren, spoke this week of fears for the health of her younger family members as winter takes hold.

Family members of the Aust­ralians, led by Mr Dabboussy, have been trying to have them repatriated since they were taken to the camp about seven months ago. Mr Dabboussy said Mariam was keen to get out of the camp with her two daughters.

“She’s not oblivious to some of the concerns raised … and in order to bridge the trust issues, she’s willing to undertake the orders by consent,” he said.

“She understands that there is some deprivation of liberty.”