Voters’ Newspoll verdict: don’t let ISIS wives, children return

The majority of voters are ­opposed to allowing Australian ISIS brides and their children to come home.

A woman walking near a fence at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced where families of Islamic State foreign fighters are held. Picture: AFP

The majority of voters are ­opposed to allowing Australian Islamic State brides and their children to be brought home from Syria following calls for them to be repatriated.

An exclusive Newspoll ­conducted for The Australian shows little sympathy for the plight of 20 Australian women and 46 children now holed up in refugee camps caught in the crossfire between Turkish and Kurdish forces, following the withdrawal of US troops from the region.

The Australian government has remained firm in its refusal to bring home the wives of Islamic State fighters and their children, claiming that it is unsafe for Australian forces to enter the region to retrieve them. There are also concerns over a lack of resources to monitor the women if they are returned to Australia, amid concerns that some could have been radicalised.

Despite a ceasefire between Turkish and Kurdish forces, Home Affairs Minister Peter ­Dutton has said that the 20 women and 46 children would not be extracted because any ­Australian forces called on to enter the region would be put in harm’s way.

“The advice is consistent to us, and that is that there’s not an ­opportunity, given the danger there at the moment,” Mr Dutton said last week. “We’ve been able to bring back some orphans, as you know, but we’re not in a position where we’re able to go into those camps.”

Mr Dutton has blamed the parents, both the Islamic State fighters and their wives, for putting the children at risk

 

“We have been very clear: we’re not going to put Australian Defence, Foreign Affairs, or Home Affairs personnel or other agencies’ staff at risk,” he said.

The poll of more than 1600 eligible voters, conducted from last Friday to Sunday, reveals that 59 per cent do not believe the women and children should be allowed to return to Australia after being lured to the region by terrorists. Only 39 per cent of voters polled had the opposing view, that they should be brought home.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said on the weekend that the government was not willing to put the lives of Australian forces at risk in an effort to retrieve them.

The government has also argued that even if the ISIS wives were to be brought home, ­intelligence and security agencies would not have the resources to subject them to the necessary control orders that would be ­required to monitor their ­repatriation.

The poll shows that reluctance to allow Islamic State wives and children to return was shared equally among men and women.

Only 15 per cent of people were strongly in favour of bringing them home. However, 39 per cent were strongly opposed to ever ­allowing them to return.

Those surveyed were asked whether they believed that the 20 women and 46 children held in detention camps in northern Syria should be repatriated to Australia. Labor voters were more likely to be sympathetic, with 50 per cent agreeing they should be returned home compared with 45 per cent being opposed.

An overwhelming majority of Coalition voters were against the women and children being ­permitted to re-enter the country.

A ceasefire was brokered last week by the US, which threatened economic sanctions against ­Turkey if it violated a goodwill agreement that it not take its fight with Kurdish forces “too far” following the withdrawal of US troops from the region.

The Kurds have long been fighting for an independent state covering northern Syria.

Mr Dutton has said he was hopeful that the Syrian ceasefire would lead to lasting peace in the region.

The poll on the issue of returning Australian Islamic State brides and children born of the terror group’s fighters was ­conducted across the country, ­including in capital cities and ­regional areas.

Only 5 per cent of respondents were uncommitted on the contentious issue.