MELBOURNE, Australia
The immigration ministry says officials have carried out almost 75,906 "real-time assessments" at eight airports between August and February as Australia ramps up efforts to clamp down on people joining "terrorist" groups.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday that the assessments were not random and involved specialist officers pulling suspicious travellers aside and asking them a series of questions to determine if they posed a risk to national security.
An unnamed spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would not say what proportion were subjected to further action, or proven to be travelling to join such groups.
"Since their deployment … Counter-Terrorism Unit teams have successfully intercepted a number of people of national security concern," she said.
The daily quoted Muslim community leaders as saying that most of those stopped were legitimate Muslim travellers, many of whom were now avoiding speaking Arabic to avoid "being embarrassed, interrogated or inconvenienced."
"I can't prove that [racial profiling] occurs but I know of many people, and I believe them, that expect to be picked at 'random' without fail because of their appearance," Joseph Wakim, founder of the Australian Arabic Council, told the Herald.
Australia's Grand Mufti, Dr. Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, has lashed out at what he called the "extremely unprofessional" and "seemingly random yet profiled manner" of the assessments following the detention of senior imam Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman in September.
The Herald said that two men were reportedly stopped in August carrying tens of thousands of Australian dollars and extremist propaganda.
In March, two teenage brothers were intercepted at Sydney Airport on their way to join Daesh, while Australia is still trying to verify the death of an 18-year-old national in Iraq during a suicide bombing by the group.
