Federal Government under pressure to rethink 'no-go zone' laws in Foreign Fighters Bill

Updated

The Federal Government is under pressure to change new terrorist laws which would make it an offence to enter an area if the foreign minister declares a listed terrorist organisation is engaged in hostile activity there.

Legal experts and a coalition of Muslim groups say the proposed law, introduced as part of the Foreign Fighters Bill, is unworkable.

They argue that it should be scrapped, or amended to spell out how people could prove they had a legitimate reason for visiting those areas.

The proposal to declare an area a "no go zone" has been heavily criticised in submissions to Parliament's joint committee on intelligence and security.

The Human Rights Commission's submission recommended the bill should not be passed in its current form, while a joint submission from groups including the Islamic Council of Queensland also said it should be scrapped.

The Council's president Mohammed Yusuf said if it was to stay, people needed more clarity on the implications.

"We need to know that people who are going genuinely to meet family members don't get caught at the airport when they come back having to explain," he said.

"That is really of major concern to us because it's not only families, [you are also] talking about friends you might have.

"To declare the area a no-go zone is one thing but... this is a bit vague at this point."

Professor Ben Saul from the University of Sydney said the proposed changes criminalised conduct that was not in itself harmful, violent or terrorist.

He called the laws an unjustified restriction on the right to freedom of movement.

The Human Rights Commission said if the no-go zones stayed in the bill, the list of legitimate reasons for travel should be made as comprehensive as possible.

Foreign evidence to become more accessible

Another controversial part of the bill would make it easier to use evidence gathered in a foreign country to identify, charge and prosecute Australians.

Mr Yusuf warned evidence could be too unreliable.

"For instance, a person is charged here and the evidence against them is used from evidence, say, obtained from Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq," he said.

"Now some of the regimes up there are corrupt. Some of the evidence might not be obtained through the proper legal means.

"Those sorts of things are very worrying. You have a situation where the evidence is obtained from overseas, and then used in a court of law against the accused here, so we have very strongly objected to that."

The bill would also make it easier for the Attorney-General to give the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) a questioning warrant, which would allow it to compel someone to provide answers and produce records.

ASIO's submission to the parliamentary committee said the proposed amendment would improve the effectiveness of the warrants as an intelligence collection tool.

The Government wants the Foreign Fighters Bill through Parliament quickly, with the joint committee examining it due to report by the end of next week.

Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, federal-parliament, federal-government, parliament, canberra-2600, act, australia

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