Australia to Take Back Some Dual-National Terrorism Suspects – Minister

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Australia will have to take back its dual nationals suspected of committing terrorist offenses in the event they are stripped of their second citizenship, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Wednesday in a series of interviews with local media.

"Now we have said as a fundamental principle we aren't going to render people stateless and that is a very important principle," Dutton told Sky News.

The Australian cabinet is debating an update to the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 that could revoke citizenship of dual nationals who fight alongside or support Islamist militant groups. Some lawmakers are also pushing to expand this measure to Australia’s sole nationals, according to the Guardian.

Dutton told ABC Radio that, though committing acts of terrorism constituted a "breach of your privilege to be an Australian citizen," stripping terror suspects of their sole citizenship was anti-constitutional.

When asked by Sky News who would agree to take in a suspected terrorist once this person is deported from Australia and denied entry to the country of their second citizenship, the minister suggested there were many nations that would be obliged to take them "because of birth right or because of the fact that they were born in that country."

Australia has been tightening legislation to stop the flow of foreign fighters to the Middle East and then returning back home since the summer of 2014 saw the rise of the Islamic State militant group.

Dutton cited Australian intelligence agencies who estimate there are 100 Australians fighting in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. A further 150 people in Australia are thought to be supporting foreign fighters financially.