Security risk or refugee mum?
Ahead of the likely arrival of a former Isis bride, legal scholars and a prominent Kiwi Muslim advocate are asking what the plan is. Benn Bathgate reports.
When single mum of two Suhayra Aden walked out of war-ravaged Syria she set off a firestorm of controversy half a world away, piling pressure on already strained transTasman relations.
The 26-year-old dual New ZealandAustralian citizen last lived in New Zealand as a 6-year-old, before departing for Australia, and then, almost two decades later, Syria.
Now, with Australia having stripped her of citizenship, it appears her next stop is New Zealand – where her arrival may also test a neverbefore-used terror law. That law was put in place in response to bumbling ‘‘Kiwi Jihadi’’ Mark Taylor and his flight to Syria, and is the sole legal lever the Government has to monitor and manage a terror suspect – but noone is willing to say whether it will be used. In 2019, then justice minister Andrew Little introduced the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill to strengthen counterterrorism laws and support the deradicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas.
The law gives police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who have engaged in terrorismrelated activities overseas.
According to Waikato University law professor Alexander Gillespie, the law exists ‘‘for people who present a risk but it is hard to measure that risk’’. He said a control order could bar Aden from accessing the internet, to ‘‘neutralise’’ the risk of inciting extremism, recruiting others and accessing ‘‘extremist ideology’’, and place limits on who she talked to and where she lived.
It could also mandate reporting to a police station and the wearing of an electronically monitored bracelet.
As far as the law goes now, ‘‘that is all you have got’’, Gillespie said.
However, both the police and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) declined to say whether such an order may be used.
In a statement to Stuff, an SIS spokesperson said: ‘‘You will need to talk to the New Zealand Police, who are the lead agency for control orders.’’
‘‘The NZ SIS has a long-standing approach of not publicly discussing specific individuals. However, we can say that the NZ SIS supports agencies in accordance with its mission to keep New Zealand and New Zealanders safe and secure.’’
Police were even more tight-lipped.
‘‘At this time we are not in a position to respond to your query for operational reasons.’’
Stuff also sought to ascertain whether any New Zealander has been subject to a control order.
The Ministry of Justice referred Stuff to the High Court registrars at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – none of whom responded to questions at the time of writing.
Gillespie said it was good that a law was in place ahead of Aden’s likely return, and said the fact it required judicial oversight – ‘‘not just the SIS’’ – and was subject to judicial review meant it struck the right balance between curtailing risk and an individual’s civil liberties.
‘‘We are in that grey area, what risk is there to society from this person?’’ he said. ‘‘There is a risk some of these people want to carry on their extremism, you can never know for sure.’’
He also said he believed much of what would happen to Aden would remain shrouded in secrecy, largely because of her two children, aged 2 and 5.
‘‘It is important the kids integrate,’’ he said. ‘‘She will disappear from the public view and that is right. The kids change everything.’’
Gillespie also said it was likely Aden had suffered ‘‘a lot of stress and trauma’’ – points echoed by Professor Douglas Pratt.
The author of Religious Extremism: Rejecting Diversity said he did not believe Aden would pose a risk to New Zealanders. ‘‘She has been through a lot. Her focus is her surviving children,’’ he said.
‘‘She would not be the only teenage girl, which I think she was when she went over to join Isis, who has got caught up with the ‘romance’ and sense of purpose with a cause perceived to be in some sense worthy – and the idea of producing babies for the cause is nothing new.
‘‘As with many before her, the reality of the conditions imposed in the real-life situation she got caught up in, and the responsibility of motherhood and maturation from girl to young woman, means things and perspectives change.’’
Pratt said that while Australia had ‘‘disowned her’’, the land of her birth could take her, her children, and provide a chance for her to turn her life around.
‘‘She will surely be under close scrutiny until she can demonstrate what I suspect is the case, namely that she is no extremist ideologue,’’ Pratt said.
‘‘If I am proved wrong, appropriate sanctions can be applied, the main one being the loss of her children. And that, I suggest, she will be desperate to avoid.’’
Relationships key for former extremists to ‘fit in’
A key theme in studies on deradicalisation programmes overseas, including the Prevent programme in the United Kingdom, is the role that family and social relationships can play.
It is a theme that has been acknowledged in New Zealand too.
‘‘Relationships are a primary vehicle for disengagement from violent extremism and appear to be what best enables former violent extremists to ‘fit in’ elsewhere in society.’’
That is the view of Jayde Walker, Department of Corrections senior psychologist.
In a paper titled ‘‘An introduction to countering violent extremism’’, Walker, who declined to speak to Stuff, said social ties could act as an anchor for those who had disengaged from wider society.
‘‘For this reason, promoting the maintenance, or re-establishment of pro-social, non-extremist family and community links is essential in assisting individuals to leave violent extremism.’’
Given the importance of these links, and the fact Aden’s family are in Australia, Stuff asked Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi whether members of Aden’s family would be allowed to enter New Zealand.
‘‘Nothing has been agreed or determined in relation to this case. At the age of 6 years old, the person involved moved with her family from New Zealand to Australia.’’
However, he did add: ‘‘A number of family members have the right to travel to New Zealand.’’
The role of family in deradicalisation is also a topic that Naureen Chowdhury Fink, former senior policy adviser on counterterrorism at the United Kingdom’s mission to the United Nations, and the co-author of International Peace Institute paper Transforming Terrorists, has examined.
She agreed that family could play a crucial role in exiting extremism but there were caveats.
‘‘It must also be recognised that families subscribing to violent extremist ideas themselves can have a negative impact on deradicalisation efforts.’’
In email correspondence with Stuff, Fink stressed the importance of an individual risk analysis ahead of any deradicalisation efforts.
‘‘Her willingness and interest in settling into a ‘non-extremist’ life and the actual options for her to do so will be key,’’ she said.
‘‘A proper security and psychosocial screening will be key.
‘‘Under UN Security Council Resolution 2396, states are urged to consider prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies – premised on the idea that the state should first focus on whether or not the individual is guilty of any crimes related to terrorism, and then consider a suitable reintegration plan.’’
She also noted one additional complication in trying to assess how deradicalisation may work with Aden, and about the broad question of whether such programmes work.
‘‘Most programmes dealing with al Qaeda or Isis also did not have a lot of women so it is unclear but it is clear that not attempting any kind of disengagement programme is also a potential security risk, and unhelpful to the individual,’’ she said.
‘‘Reported stats from some state programmes indicated that recidivism was not worse than for other crimes, and better in some instances.’’
What’s the plan?
Anjum Rahman, founding member of the Islamic Women’s Council and the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective, told Stuff she too has been asking a lot of questions about Aden.
‘‘If she is going to come here, what is the plan?’’ she said.
‘‘There are people still bent on causing harm and she will be a focal point, and in our community. I have had all those concerns.’’
Rahman said that while she had not been contacted by any government agencies, she would be willing to offer Aden support on her arrival back in New Zealand, though she was careful to stress her organisations are not there for mental health support or deradicalisation efforts.
‘‘We would be willing to help as long as the other side was taken care of.
‘‘She will need some support and we will look at connecting her. Being a single mum is never easy.’’