Documents reveal new details about Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s meeting with ISIS bride advocates

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has come under fire from the Coalition after new documents revealed he held closed-door talks with advocates lobbying to repatriate so-called ISIS brides to Australia. The documents, obtained through questions on notice in Senate Estimates on Tuesday, included an emailed meeting briefing which outlined the conversation between the Minister for Home Affairs, a public servant from the Department of Home Affairs, advocate Kamalle Dabbousy and charity Save The Children. Mr Dabbousy’s daughter, Mariam, has previously told Australian media she was tricked into travelling to Islamic State territory by her former husband. She was repatriated in 2022. The emailed brief is not a transcript, but a summary, of the meeting. It detailed Mr Burke’s refusal to provide assurances the Australian government would provide the passports for repatriation, as well as thanking the group for keeping their lobbying efforts out of the media. According to the document, Mr Dabbousy spoke of the “physical and psychological impact of what (was) happening inside the camps”, referring to the militarisation of the camp and “children being weaponised against their mothers, i.e. if they go beyond the fence lines they will be shot”. Mr Burke then responded there “may be a way to achieve the same outcome without government undertakings”, according to the brief. The public servant, who authored the email, was then asked to leave by Mr Burke after Mr Dabbousy requested the chance to speak “frankly”. This closed-door part of the meeting was criticised by Coalition finance spokesman James Paterson, who claimed Mr Burke had to “front up”. “But what is it that Tony Burke wanted to say to Save the Children, that he didn’t want a public servant present in the room for?” Senator Paterson said. He also lashed Mr Burke for thanking the group from staying out of headlines, saying: “The minister thanks Save the Children for keeping this out of the media.“He says he doesn’t want public attention on this,” Senator Paterson said. “Why would a Minister for Home Affairs, whose duty is to protect the Australian people want to keep this information secret from the public?” He added the government should have “put obstacles” in the way of the Australian cohort wanting to return from northern Syria. A separate document revealed a US-supported repatriation effort was also on the cards for the group, however, NewsWire understands that effort was blocked by Home Affairs by refusing to hand over the group’s passports. The August letter, authored by Mr Dabbousy and Save the Children chief executive Mat Tinkler, detailed the US Government’s offer to provide support in returning the ISIS brides to Australia. It is dated two months after the meeting with Mr Burke. The letter said family members were “seeking to take control of their own destiny” and outlined the US-facilitated repatriation offer, which if accepted, would have been facilitated by a specialist American task force designed to repatriate foreign nationals. Mr Burke told NewsWire in a statement the notes and letter have been consistent with the government’s position. “There was a request from Save the Children to conduct a repatriation operation. It was refused,” the statement read. “There was no repatriation and no assistance. “Public servants did what they were legally obliged to do and no more.”