The repatriation of foreign fighters’ families is not so black and white

We live in a world with an increasing polarity of opinions. But the problem with black and white thinking is that it doesn’t enable us to find middle ground – something that is critical when looking at issues with shades of grey, like the recently announced plan to repatriate Australian women and children whose husbands were part of the Islamic State.

The Federal Government recently announced plans to bring home up to 60 women and their children, who are currently being held in a detention camp in Syria. This was swiftly met with outcry from commentators ranging from Karl Stefanovic to Fairfield Mayor Frank Cabone, who went as far as saying these families are ‘not welcome’ in western Sydney.

Mayor Cabone and other commentators like MP Dai Le have raised a valid argument about how this repatriation will impact existing refugees in western Sydney – many of whom were persecuted and driven from their homelands by ISIS.

?Even with my decades of experience working with refugees to build new lives in Australia, I do not believe this is an issue we can approach from such a black and white perspective.

?We have to listen to the experts on this. Successive governments have reviewed the plight of these families, been advised by intelligence and radicalisation specialists, and ultimately, they have made the decision to bring these families home.

?In my opinion, it is a decision that was long overdue. Irrelevant of the actions of their parents, Australian children are living in dire conditions in detention camps. We have a responsibility to them as Australian citizens.

?I’ve watched the heartbreak this separation has caused to families whose relatives are among this cohort, including my long-time colleague Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter Mariam was coerced by her husband and forced at gunpoint to enter Syria.

?After the death of her husband, she was forced to re-marry, and since the defeat of ISIS, she has been living in refugee camps with her three young children.

?Kamalle has been living every parent’s worst nightmare and has been a formidable advocate for families like Mariam’s, working with Save the Children and other local and international agencies to bring these families home.

?As former ADF intelligence analyst Shane Healey recently told The Project, it is possible to safely bring these families home and reintegrate them into Australia.

?“They’re going to take them to a host nation somewhere in the Middle East and give them a holistic assessment – psychological, education, medical – and that takes weeks, and then slowly unpack whether it is trauma or any medical issues and then start building them up to integrate back in Australia,” he said.

?I do want to make it clear that, like Mayor Cabone and Dai Le, I am very conscious of the sensitivities this presents to the refugees organisations like SSI works with. But I am confident that we have appropriate services in place to ensure all parties are kept safe and supported through this transition.

It is a complex situation that required a nuanced response. What we don’t need is commentary that incites ill will and stokes community division against vulnerable women and children.

Looking globally, we have seen the families of foreign fighters successfully repatriated to Germany, France and the US. If that can be done in a way that safe-guards the health and wellbeing of all community members, then the bottom line is that Australia has an obligation to reunite families like Kamalle’s and bring its citizens home.