Jihad travellers to face suspended passports

Proposed laws will be introduced to allow authorities to suspend at short notice the passports of any Australians suspected of wanting to leave the country to join Islamist rebellions in Syria and Iraq.

The laws are aimed at stemming the flow of would-be young jihadists heading for conflict zones in the Middle East, Fairfax Media reports.

Their passports could be suspended for 48 hours, or possibly up to a week, so ASIO can undertake a thorough security assessment that could lead to their passports being cancelled altogether.

While their passport is suspended, counter-terrorism authorities would encourage family members, community leaders and clerics to advise would-be jihadists on more moderate Islamic values, in a bid to curb radicalisation.

"We don’t want to deal with people who are planning an attack in Australia because we have cancelled their passport," an unnamed security source was quoted by Fairfax as saying.

More than 50 passports have been cancelled due to adverse security assessments in the past two years.