(Stuff) The government has been preparing since 2018 for numerous New Zealand citizens to return from the former Islamic State of Iraq and Syria with their children.
Cabinet ministers last month agreed to the managed repatriation of Suhayra Aden, who will be the first publicly known adherent of the Islamic State, or Isis, to return to New Zealand after travelling to Syria.
The government has previously been tight-lipped about the number of New Zealand citizens who joined Isis and survived its collapse.
But a November briefing paper, obtained under the Official Information Act, shows that in 2018 Cabinet ministers signed off on a “foreign terrorist fighters” framework that established three options for managing returning Isis adherents. The report referred to cases, which have been redacted, that “involve young children and each case involves a complex set of facts.”
