This is a difficult position for the federal government, we have the Islamic women who voluntarily left Australia to move to the calipate in Syria when ISIS was in control of the region. If these women are so fundamentally hard-line that they would willingly move to a war zone to live the ISIS life, then they have no business returning to Australia when the ISIS caliphate collapses.

However, this is where the situation becomes difficult, if they are Australian citizens then Australia has an obligation to return them. Naturally, these women are a security risk to the nation, they have been radicalised. So the government has an issue, they hold a fundamental obligation to Australian citizens, even ones who engage in terrorism or terrorist ideals. What we as a nation are not allowed to do is leave a person stateless, this is an international agreement between nations. This is controlled by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, therefore, governments cannot revoke a person’s nationality if doing so leaves them without a country.

So after years of stalling, the women are being returned from Syrian refugee camps to Australia. What a performance this is, the return of the women through Melbourne airport flanked by supporters is almost obscene. The behaviour of the ISIS brides reflects not only poorly on the supporters, but the Islamic community in general. This is the same group of people marching in the streets for the anti-Israel protests. This pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel cohort group openly support designated terrorism groups. With foreign interference occurring in Australia funded by terrorism groups, this is a national security concern.