(Sydney Morning Herald) Dozens of Australian-born women married to Islamic State fighters in Syria face an even tougher battle to return home, after Foreign Minister Marise Payne warned coronavirus had stretched the resources needed to deradicalise and reintegrate women and children.
Speaking during high-level talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, Senator Payne said that while some orphan children of IS families had returned to Australia, the Morrison government “would not put our communities at home at risk” in order to repatriate more people from Syria.
The toughening of the government’s stance sits at odds with Pompeo’s calls for countries to bring back and prosecute their own jihadist nationals.
