Australian parliament to ban extremists from coming home

Australian Home Affairs Peter Dutton plans to the return of citizens who foguht for ISIS. Getty

Australia is set to pass laws that would allow the government to prevent suspected extremists from returning home for up to two years while Australian supporters of ISIS are demanding to be repatriated from crowded Syrian refugee camps.

The bills based on British law were debated in the Senate on Wednesday after they were passed Tuesday night in the House of Representatives where the conservative government holds a majority.

The centre-left Labor Party opposition wants the legislation made more consistent with the British model with amendments that would allow a judge rather than Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to decide which Australians are banished. But the opposition supported the legislation in the House, indicating that their misgivings were not sufficient to attempt to block its passage.

The legislation could be passed into law as early as Thursday.

Mr Dutton argues he needs the flexibility to act quickly to prevent extremists returning.

He also argues that some of Labor's proposed amendments set the threshold for preventing Australians from returning too high.

The so-called Temporary Exclusion Order was "designed to ensure that authorities can manage these returns in a way that keeps the Australian community safe," Mr Dutton told parliament.

The Law Council of Australia, the nation's leading advocacy for lawyers, on Wednesday questioned whether the proposed law was constitutional and urged the Senate to refer the bill to a parliamentary committee for review.

"Protecting the safety and security of the Australian people must always be the paramount concern of government. But rushed laws at risk of constitutional challenge pose an unnecessary risk to national security," council president Arthur Moses said in a statement.

"The Australian people must be able to have confidence that public safety and the work of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies is protected by laws and powers that are strong, proportional and without legal ambiguity," Mr Moses added.

Parliament is debating the law change as aid groups estimate that at least 50 Australian women and children have been stranded in overcrowded Syrian refugee camps following the loss of Islamic State's territory in the Middle East.

Australia announced a month ago its first organised repatriation from the conflict zone, when eight Australian offspring of two slain ISIS fighters were moved from the Al Hawl camp in northeastern Syria across the border to Iraq.