The "right choice has been made" to allow a woman with alleged links to ISIS, along with her two children, to return to New Zealand, an expert says.
It was announced yesterday Suhayra Aden and her children would be repatriated here after being asked by Turkey — where she is currently detained — to do so.
Aden has been at the centre of a diplomatic spat , after Australia revoked her citizenship , effectively washing their hands of the situation.
She was a dual citizen after leaving New Zealand when she was six years old and departed for Syria in 2014 on an Australian passport.
Douglas Pratt, an expert in religious fundamentalism and extremism, told Breakfast it was "absolutely" right of New Zealand to allow her back.
"No problem with that at all," he said.
"She is a New Zealand citizen. Her kids deserve a break."
Pratt reflected the "right choice has been made" and said if the right connections were made into New Zealand's Muslim community, her and her children would get the support and tools they needed to integrate and rehabilitate.
Given New Zealand still had a "underbelly of rejection", Pratt said people needed to "back off Islamophobia" in order to help with the family's integration.
"The key will be not just in relation to her, but in relation to her community, that she feels she’s a part of a community that is accepted within New Zealand," he said.
The Government has announced it'll repatriate NZ-born Suhayra Aden at the request of Turkish authorities but won't say when the family will arrive. (Source: Other)
Pratt explained how he had found young people like Aden got "hooked into" ISIS due to its "seductive kind of propaganda".
This "seductive kind of propaganda" was around the true Islam. "It was almost like a utopian vision."
"The reality would have been quite different when she got into it," Pratt said.
"My pick is she’ll be well and truly traumatised and have incredible, deep experiences to resolve."
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