Australian ISIS detainees in Iraq could be released from Al-Karkh Central Prison as Tony Burke rules out help

The Home Affairs Minister has declared the Government will “not lift a finger” to assist a group of Australian men suspected of fighting for ISIS following reports they could soon be freed from the Iraqi prison system.

In February, The Nightly revealed 13 Australian prisoners were among almost 6000 captured terrorists who had been transferred to Baghdad for interrogations ahead of trials related to crimes in Iraq.

A document written in Arabic released by the Iraqi Correctional Service earlier this year confirmed 5704 suspected Islamic State-linked foreign fighters and affiliates had been taken to the country’s Al-Karkh Central Prison.

Some members of the group are now reportedly being interviewed by officials from the United States and Iraq as part of an international push in “achieving justice” for those who didn’t engage in combat.

“The Australians form part of a larger cohort of detainees (that will be) interviewed. We don’t know when they will be interviewed, or how long it could take, but they will be spoken to,” an Iraqi Correctional Services staffer told The Australian newspaper.

“Part of Iraq’s ongoing efforts to manage the file of detainees accused of terrorism includes a handover process that contributes to achieving justice,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

The correctional services staffer also told The Australian that the conditions the prisoners were being held in were “not pleasant”, adding “there have been drone strikes, rocket strikes and many security threats over the years”.

“A single cell can house many prisoners so the conditions are not pleasant. Unlike the women and children, who were stuck in a detention camp, these are prisoners accused of serious crimes. Many of them, if not all, don’t have current passports, so the Australian government would need to approve their removal.”

Responding to questions about their possible release, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke insisted the Albanese Government would give “absolutely none” of the men any assistance to return home if they were freed by Iraqi authorities.

“These people have made a completely unacceptable decision and the government wouldn’t lift a finger to assist them,” Mr Burke told reporters in Sydney.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is also reported to have had contact with the family of imprisoned man Yusuf Zahab, who was trafficked from Australia into Islamic State territory at around the age of 12.

Since the Albanese Government came to office, 11 women and 23 children connected with ISIS have returned home to Australia from Syria, but Labor has maintained no public assistance has been given for their repatriation.

Shadow home affairs minister Jono Duniam said the Albanese Government had already mishandled the return of so-called ISIS brides and needed to take stronger steps to deal with possible repatriations of prisoners.

“The label ‘non-combatant’ looks like a very convenient and very worrying loophole to try to apply lenient treatment to people who spent years in the orbit of Islamic State,” Senator Duniam told The Nightly.

“ISIS was a terrorist death cult. The Government should be approaching every one of these cases with maximum caution, maximum transparency and a single-minded focus on protecting the Australian community.”

“Labor says it will not be lifting a finger to help these people. But that’s exactly what they said about the ISIS brides and their children, too — and we all saw how that ended.”

“Tony Burke’s verbal denials are nowhere near enough. Australians deserve to know urgently and clearly whether the Albanese Government has an actual plan, and exactly what it will do, if and when Australian ISIS-linked detainees are released from Iraqi prisons.”

In a statement to The Nightly, the Home Affairs Minister hit back, and moved to assure the public that national security agencies were doing everything to ensure Australians remained safe.

“The Australian Federal Police and ASIO are continuing to do absolutely everything that people would expect,” Mr Burke said.

“We need to remember those people weren’t the first ones to return to Australia. And even before we came to office, 45 men who had gone there to fight, had returned. And our agencies continue to do everything Australians would expect to keep them safe.”

In April, Iraq’s National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation confirmed it had repatriated a Finnish minor and an American national to their respective countries after formal investigations cleared them of any affiliation with ISIS.