08 April 2016•Update: 15 April 2016
MELBOURNE, Australia
Australia’s immigration minister announced Friday that “well over” 100 Australians have left the country to join Daesh in Syria and Iraq while almost 200 have been identified as actively supporting terrorist activity from their hometowns.
At a press conference in Melbourne, Peter Dutton warned that those thinking about travelling overseas to conduct terrorism would face very severe consequences on their return.
Australia passed legislation early Dec. 2015 to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are convicted or suspected of terrorism offences, or found to have fought with banned groups in an effort to increase anti-terror measures.
"This is a very significant piece of legislation that the Government negotiated through the Parliament, and over the coming months we will see individual cases considered and if people are dual nationals they’ve been involved in terrorist activities, then they have the potential to lose their Australian citizenship," the Australian Associated Press reported him as saying.
Dutton added that the number of people who had left Australia to fight for Daesh in Syria had climbed to “well over” 100, and highlighted government concerns that terror groups represented a “very significant threat” -- especially to young people who were being “indoctrinated online”.
“We aren’t going to render people Stateless, but we are going to look at individual cases so that we can realistically deal with a threat that we face in this country,” said Dutton, confirming that the legislation is being treated carefully.
The legislation does not apply to children under the age of 14, however children whose parents have had their citizenship revoked are not allowed to remain in Australia either.
