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© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Australian leader makes no promises on IS man's children
By ROD McGUIRK CANBERRA, Australia©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
17 Comments
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HonestDictator
Sorry Mrs. Nettleton, but your daughter made her choice. This is one of those situations where it results in a life consequence. It may hurt the parents heart to no end, but this is out of her hands and her daughter will have to live or die with the foolish decision she made. Foolish people end up in foolish situations, and some of those situations cost lives.
lucabrasi
Abbott really is a brute.
M3M3M3
Obviously if the children show up at an Australia embassy somewhere, the governmemt should do whatever is normally done to bring them back to Australia. But no-one should expect Australia to go looking for these children in a warzone.
HongoTAFEinmate
Big Tuff Tony. What a man. I must say that I hold no truck with the parents of these children, but really? I doubt whether these kiddies have anything other than Australian nationality. As such, Abort probably won't have a choice.
smartacus
I don't see why some readers above are criticizing Abbott. These decisions are never easy. These children are messed up, especially the one who was photographed holding the severed head of an Islamic State victim. Kids who have been exposed to IS doctrine are quite capable of vicious acts.
So what should the government do? Allow them back into the country and hope they can readjust to society? In whose care will they be placed? Most of their relatives are certainly extremists themselves. If they were my neighbors, I would certainly be keeping a wary eye on them.
BurakuminDes
These children will be repatriated back to Australia if they make it out of Syria alive. They are Australians and have no other home - and are children. I hope they can eventually erase from their memory the evil deeds of their fathers.
Spanki
I wish the UK would take that stance too.
nath
Did the kid help cut the head off as I read in a tabloid?
SuperLib
Tough call. Technically they are citizens of Australia, and they certainly didn't choose to go to the Middle East since they are children. But bringing them back, especially when their worldview has been shaped by their father and brutal terrorists, is difficult. I can't say that I really have a perfect answer.
nostromo
what else would you expect from Tony 'keeping the fear cranked up' Abbott?
dbsaiya
Let IS take care of them, they are their people now. Bring them back? How does anyone know that they won't be starting their own sleeper cells once repatriated? Wander off to a far off land to fight for IS and when it gets tough you wanna come home? Not sure if IS will take too kindly to that. If they don't kill you for being a non-believer and for possibly spying then why would they let you freely return home unless it is to spread their agenda overseas?
sighclops
For the uninformed - these kids are no little angels. One was fighting with his father and was even pictured holding up the severed heads of his victims. THE CHILD. The mother made the conscious decision to flee a modern democracy with the husband & kids, so the onus is on her.
Ron Barnes
Let them Stay in the Middle east Where they belong With their beliefs.
DaDude
IS would be happy if they are taken back to Australia and are probably training them as we speak on ways to cause more mayhem in Australia.
BurakuminDes
Do you actually realise you are talking about 7 and 13 year old kids, who have been sexually, violently and emotionally abused by their own scumbag father and his fellow cultist friend - and dragged into a warzone? These children are victims of this death cult, and will get a far better chance at a future when they are returned to Australia soon, rather than in the hell-hole they are in.
Wc626
Australia, Assuies are pretty cool people. It's the PM's outright duty to keep those people safe. Put their documents into the shredder, delete their data and lable them as exiles. Their parents burned the bridges, the damage cannot be undone-
presto345
How many and what kind of levels are in his book, I wonder.