A former Daesh bride and Irish citizen currently held in Syria with her two-year old daughter has expressed her wishes to return home during an interview with the BBC on Friday.
The 37-year old Lisa Smith denied fighting for Daesh but claims that she wants “to see an actual caliphate, as in a Muslim country” and not as part of a “brutality group.”
She claimed that she neither trained nor fought for the group and would not have be allowed to even if she wanted as she had a child.
In April, during an interview with the Irish Daily Mail, Smith said: "I want to go back to my country."
She explained that she had originally accepted that she could have died but had a change of heart following the birth of her daughter.
"She’s my No.1 priority now; that’s why I want to leave and take her home with me and get her educated. People here are not educated," she said.
Addressing her situation in March, Irish president Leo Varadkar said that Mrs Smith has "the right" to return but she must be excluded from being considered a security threat first.
The Irish Government is now having to figure out it's approach to the numerous returning Daesh-affiliates and members returning to Ireland such as Alexandr Bekmirzev, a captured jihadist fighter, who also holds Irish citizenship.
The Irish Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty has said that Smith deserves assistance as much as any Irish citizen but acknowledged that she may be a security threat.
“I think she’s an Irish citizen with a small baby,” Doherty said.
“I know there are concerns .. but surely we can do a security assessment and deal with that.”
Speaking to TheJournal, The Department of Justice said those suspected of being involved in fighting in Iraq or Syria is a "complex challenge" and brings up "questions of public protection, the prosecution of offenses, the protection of citizens’ rights and deradicalisation".
These comments follow the stripping of citizenship of British-born Daesh bride Shamima Begum.
Begum traveled to Syria in 2015 aged 15 and joined the terror group and married a jihadist fighter.
She subsequently became pregnant and tried to return to the UK with her child following the defeat of Daesh.
She was left stateless after being deemed a security risk and her citizenship was removed by Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
*Daesh (aka ISIL, ISIS, Islamic state) is a terrorist group banned in Russia
