Citizenship of Australian terrorists overseas under question

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Yesterday, Australia's Prime Minister proposed his government might strip individuals of their Australian citizenship if authorities consider them involved in terrorist activity.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated, "As flagged by me in my national security statement in February, we will be legislating within a few weeks to strip dual citizens involved in terrorism of their Australian citizenship".

The Coalition government's bill aims to empower the immigration minister to revoke Australian citizenship of dual nationals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity.

Speaking of procedural for stripping individual citizenship, immigration minister Peter Dutton said he would take advice from intelligence agencies, such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Dutton said, "We would gather as much evidence as was possible and we would make a decision whether or not we thought somebody was captured by what is a tight definition in relation to somebody committing an act of terrorism, an act preparatory to, fundraising or supporting a terrorist organisation or providing financial support or indoctrinating young people into the ways of one of these cults."

This news comes as the Australian wife of Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf, Tara Nettleton, attempts to re-enter the country with her children. Khaled's seven-year-old son appeared in an internet image Khaled posted last year — in which the boy was holding a severed human head.

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Sources

James Bennett, Eliza Borrello, Chris Uhlmann. "Government promises laws to strip citizenship from dual-nationality terrorists within weeks, amid debate within Cabinet" — ABC News (Australia), May 27, 2015
AAP and Reuters. "'No compromise' for Isis fighter Khaled Sharrouf's wife if she returns to Australia" — The Guardian, May 26, 2015
Daniel Hurst. "Dual-national jihadists face loss of Australian citizenship, but not sole nationals yet" — The Guardian, May 26, 2015

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