A Canadian man who fought alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) and has been detained at Brisbane Airport has been questioned about an Australian anti-IS fighter who returned home late last year.

Robert Somerville, who served with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan and is a friend of Queensland anti-IS fighter Ashley Dyball, flew into Brisbane airport on Tuesday morning on the way to visit his family in central Queensland.

When questioned by immigration authorities, he disclosed that he had spent part of the previous year fighting against IS in Syria with a Kurdish militia called the YPG, which Mr Dyball also served with.

He was subsequently told that his visa had been cancelled and he would be deported.

Speaking from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Centre, Mr Somerville told the ABC that Australian authorities had questioned him closely about Mr Dyball, who was interviewed by the Australian Federal Police after being deported from Germany to Melbourne late last year, but was released without charge and has declined to speak publicly since then.

"They were very curious about what he did in Syria and how he was, his character, and I answered truthfully that he was a good guy and he was doing good work," Mr Somerville said.

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Mr Somerville said Border Force officials told him his visa was being cancelled because he did not disclose the Kurdish nickname given to him by fellow YPG fighters.

"Under the section 'do you have any names other than the one above' I put down 'no' because I have no other legal names, I haven't changed my name so there's no legal document with a different name for me," he said.

"But they are insisting that my Kurdish name that I received in Syria, because I didn't put that name down, I was open to still having my visa cancelled."

While the YPG is not designated a terror group by the Australian Government, it has links to the Kurdish separatist group the PKK, which is on the terror list of a number of countries, including Australia.

However, supporters of the Kurds say the PKK is only listed by countries in order to maintain good relations with the Turkish Government, which has been fighting the PKK for years and aggressively pushes for the group to be blacklisted by friendly governments.

"The basis of the visa cancellation is at this stage unclear," said Mr Somerville's Melbourne-based lawyer Jessie Smith, of the firm Stary Norton Halphen.

"It may have political undertones and could be contestable.

"Mr Somerville can seek relief from the minister or apply to the High Court for an injunction staying his deportation.

"A team of human rights lawyers are currently examining his case."

'I had no idea the Government would treat him like a criminal'

Mr Somerville's father Richard, who lives in Charters Towers, said someone from Border Force phoned him yesterday to check that Robert intended staying with him and would be financially supported, but that he then heard nothing from authorities.

He drove to Townsville to meet Robert's plane, but his son did not appear.

He said it was ridiculous that Robert was paying a price for fighting against IS, when Australian forces in the region were also a party of the anti-IS coalition.

"Allied bombers bomb the ISIS strongholds and then people like my son clear the area and make it safe — disarming mines and making sure it's safe for people to go back into the town ... you got to have boots on the ground, even the Prime Minister has said that, you got to have someone on the ground to help these Kurds get back into the town," Richard Somerville said.

"Maybe the Minister can have a good look at this and realise that Robert's no threat, it's a family matter and just let us get along as a family.

"He called me from Thailand and I said 'Robert you're right there, get a visa come over here I'll pay for your ticket, I'll pay for your visa I'll pay for your whole trip here' and he took me up on that, I had no idea that the Australian Government would treat him like a criminal."

Fears Somerville will never be able to return to Australia

Richard Somerville said he had not seen his son for 20 years, and that Robert had siblings in Queensland he had never met.

He said he feared that after being deported from Australia once, Robert would never be able to return.

Australian authorities have consistently said that Australians who travel to the Middle East to fight against Islamic State will be prosecuted under foreign fighter laws, despite the fact Australia and allied nations are actually working with anti-IS forces such as the Kurdish YPG.

Last year Melbourne man Jamie Williams was charged under foreign fighter laws for attempting to travel to the Middle East and join Kurdish forces, although Attorney-General George Brandis is currently considering whether to discontinue the prosecution.

Also silent since returning to Australia is Northern Territory Australian Labor Party figure Matthew Gardiner.

Like Mr Dyball, Mr Gardiner will be keenly interested in what the outcome of Mr Williams's case is.