Australian Teenagers Detained At Sydney Airport Were Going To Middle East To Join Islamic State, Abbott Suggests

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott suggested that the two young boys, who had been stopped at Sydney airport, were travelling to the Middle East to join Islamic State forces. The young boys are aged 16 and 17.

According to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, the authorities might have saved the lives of the young boys by detaining them at the airport. He said that the authorities, at the same time, saved the lives of several Australians who might have suffered terrorist attacks by radicalised returnees from the Middle East.

Dutton said that the teenage boys were arrested under terrorism-related amendments which had been introduced in October 2014. According to the amendments, authorities are allowed to arrest someone whom they believe to be involved in the commission of terrorism offences. According to earlier laws, they should have been sure of the fact that the person was in deed involved in terrorism.

According to Abbott, the incident was evidence that the Australian government’s “strong border protection policies” were working. He called the detained boys as “misguided young Australians.” He said that they seemed to have succumbed “to the lure of the death cult.” The young boys were “on the verge of doing something terrible and dangerous,” he said.

The Australian PM also sent a message to “anyone listening to the death cult.” He asked them to block their ears. He challenged them not to think that they could leave the country to join terrorist forces in the Middle East. “We will stop you on the border on the way out -- if you get out we will stop you at the border on the way back,” he said.

CCTV footage reveals that custom officials led away the teenagers after they had gone through passport control. They were carrying backpacks and wearing T-shirts. According to Dutton, two alert Customs and Border Protection officers went suspicious about the teenagers and referred them to the terrorism unit after their bags had been searched.

Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi asked parents to spot any signs of their children being radicalised. Rifi said that the teenagers were prevented from “making a deadly mistake.”

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@IBTimes.com.au