Australia to strip militants of citizenship

Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, will strip the citizenship of dual nationals who fight for terrorist groups at home or abroad following concerns about the growing numbers of Australians making the 8,000-mile journey to join Isil, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Abbott reportedly wanted to go further and apply the laws to those who are Australian citizens only, which would effectively leave them stateless. But the proposal – described by Abbott’s colleagues as “gung ho” - was reportedly rejected after a tense cabinet meeting.

“There are a lot of Australians overseas right now — about 100 — fighting with terrorist groups in the middle east; 40 to 50 per cent appear to be dual nationals,” Abbott said.

“Under the legislation that we intend to introduce in the next few weeks… [the immigration minister] may, subject ultimately to judicial review, strip the Australian citizenship from those individuals and obviously they will then no longer have an entitlement to return to Australia.”

The Australians who have joined Isil have included several teenagers, including Jake Bilardi, an 18-year-old convert from Melbourne who reportedly died in a suicide attack in Iraq.