Terror laws hit 8 Kiwis
Expert surprised by the total, which he describes as a ‘significant number’
Eight Kiwis have lost or been denied their passports under tough terror laws created to block New Zealanders leaving to fight for Islamic State.
The measures were taken amid Security Intelligence Service efforts to identify people classed a “national security threat”.
Terror and security expert Paul Buchanan was surprised by the total, which he described as a “significant number”.
Those affected have not had their citizenship revoked and there have been no known prosecutions.
Eight Kiwis have lost or been denied their passports under tough terror laws created to block New Zealanders leaving the country to fight for Islamic State (Isis).
The drastic measures were taken amid the efforts of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) to identify people classed a “national security threat”.
Three people had passport applications rejected in 2015 and 2016 after the passing of the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Act in December 2014.
Four more had passports cancelled in the same period. The eighth person had their passport scrapped last year.
Those affected have not had their citizenship revoked and there have been no known prosecutions.
The measures were designed to stop people travelling to fight for
organisations with terrorist links during a period of heightened international tension.
The figures were released to the Herald by the Department of Internal Affairs under the Official Information Act. Terror and security expert Paul Buchanan was surprised by the total, which he described as a “significant number”.
“If all eight of those people had their travel documents removed, refused, etc, because it was suspected or known that they were going to fight for Daesh [Isis], that’s a lot of extra sympathisers for a country of this size, and that’s scary,” Buchanan said.
One of the cases involves a Melbourne-based New Zealand woman who had her passport cancelled in May 2016 on national security grounds.
However, the legislation is not understood to have affected New Zealanders who have gone to Syria or Iraq to join the fight against Isis.
One of those is Kiwi law graduate Ashlee Boniface, who travelled to Syria and joined YPJ, an all-female Kurdish armed unit fighting Isis, in a civilian role. She told the Herald she had not received travel restrictions from New Zealand authorities.
“I didn’t do anything illegal from a NZ perspective,” she said.
In 2015, the SIS confirmed a number of New Zealand women were heading to Iraq and Syria. It wasn’t clear whether the so-called “jihadi brides” had gone to fight or to support Isis fighters. Then-Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Dunne said none of their passports had been cancelled. A very small number of men’s passports had been cancelled, but Dunne would not reveal the number.
The Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Act was passed in December 2014 and amended three existing laws to bolster SIS surveillance capacity and to give the Minister of Internal Affairs greater powers to suspend and cancel passports.
The rules were beefed up further in April 2017 by the Intelligence and Security Act.
No passports have been cancelled over the past 18 months, something that coincides with a series of calamitous defeats for Isis in Iraq and Syria.
An SIS spokesman said New Zealand has obligations to prevent Kiwis committing terrorist acts or travelling overseas to join terrorist organisations. Buchanan suspects not all eight individuals were going to fight for Isis. He knows of one Syrian family living in New Zealand who alerted authorities to their son returning home to fight against Isis.
“He was not a jihadi, he hated [President] Assad but he hated Daesh even more. So one of those cancellations could well be that kid.”
The measures are also designed to prevent the commission of terrorist acts on New Zealand soil.
But Buchanan said global studies have found no evidence of a heightened risk of former fighters coming home and committing terrorism.
Professor Richard Jackson, director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, labelled the Government’s actions as “security theatre”. Jackson said the lack of prosecutions stemming from any of the cancelled passport cases showed officials had made “determinations on probabilities of future actions” and resulting in “punishment without a crime”.