AUSTRALIAN Somalis have been denied entry to the US as recently as May and at least three flew to their war-torn homeland to fight in late 2006, American activists claim.
Minneapolis Somali Justice Advocacy Centre director Omar Jamal said two Australian Somalis had tried to enter the US to attend a fundraising conference three months ago.
“They were from Australia and they were denied entry to the US,” he said.
Also, one Somali killed in 2006 during a clash between al-Shabaab jihadists and Somali government forces was found with an Australian passport, Mr Jamal said.
US members of the al-Shabaab extremist group, which is linked to al-Qaida, have been travelling to Australia for the past six years, one US Somali leader said.
Somali American Abdirizak Bihi fears Australians, like his nephew Burhan Hassan, 17, have fled their homes and joined al-Shabaab in Somalia.
“We have been hearing of people who were fighting and died in the Islamist war as far back as 2006 who flew in from Melbourne that died in this war,” Mr Bihi said.
“We know Somali Australians were flying in.”
Relatives intercepted a group of young men in Dubai in late 2006. “There were three, but there could have been more,” he said.
Mr Bihi said the American Somali community, which stayed informed through word of mouth, knew the Australian youths’ relatives in Melbourne and Sydney.
In America, youths are indoctrinated at local mosques by radicals who raise money at religious conventions.
His nephew is among 20 thought to have been enlisted to wage jihad in Somalia.
Confederation of the Somali Community president Saeed Fahia said relatives of the missing youths were baffled by how they come up with the money to fly to Somalia.
“It didn’t come from their families. Most of the families were shocked,” he said.
“We’re talking about a small group of Somalis going back and nobody really knows who influenced them.”
Source: Herald Sun
By Carly Crawford
