Australian Parliament to ban extremists from coming home

Young journalists club

News ID: 42326
Publish Date: 10:03 - 24 July 2019
TEHRAN, Jul 24 - Australia is set to pass laws as early as Wednesday that would allow the government to prevent suspected extremists from returning home for up to two years while Australian supporters of the Islamic State group are demanding to be repatriated from crowded Syrian refugee camps.

Australian Parliament to ban extremists from coming homeTEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The bills based on British law are scheduled for debate in the Senate on Wednesday after they were passed Tuesday night in the House of Representatives where the conservative government holds a majority.

The center-left Labor Party opposition wants the legislation made more consistent with the British model with amendments that would allow a judge rather than Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to decide which Australians are banished. But the opposition supported the legislation in the House, indicating that their misgivings were not sufficient to attempt to block its passage.

Dutton argues he needs the flexibility to act quickly to prevent extremists returning.

He also argues that some of Labor's proposed amendments set the threshold for preventing Australians from returning too high.

The so-called Temporary Exclusion Order was "designed to ensure that authorities can manage these returns in a way that keeps the Australian community safe," Dutton told Parliament.

Parliament is debating the law change as aid groups estimate that at least 50 Australian women and children have been stranded in overcrowded Syrian refugee camps following the loss of Islamic State's territory in the Middle East.

Source: Reuters

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