A Queensland teenager in Syria has had his passport cancelled by the Australian government but maintains he is in the war zone “to help humanity and especially the people of Syria”.
Oliver Bridgeman left Toowoomba in March 2015, telling his parents he would spend a year working for a Balinese charity.
He surfaced in Syria in April and says he has been working with an aid group called Live Updates From Syria.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have accused the teenager of “align[ing] himself with a proscribed group” – likely to mean Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s proxy militia in Syria.
Bridgeman has denied the allegation, telling the Guardian in August he was in Syria because “Islam teaches us to help the needy, so this is my Islamic obligation”.
“I must help these people, we need to do something,” he said.
A lawyer for Bridgeman has told the ABC the 19-year-old has been instructed to surrender his cancelled passport to the nearest consular post in Turkey.
“As far as we’re aware, there’s no allegation that he’s done anything untoward or anything illegal whatsoever and that the basis for these types of decisions are usually on the basis of security risks,” his lawyer Alex Jones said.
“However, without any allegation that he’s done anything untoward, we simply can’t understand this decision.”
It is understood that Bridgeman’s parents were in negotiations with the AFP to facilitate the teenager’s return to Australia, though it is unclear whether Bridgeman himself was willing to immediately return.
Bridgeman said in response to the decision that “no matter what the Australian government say or do, they know that I’m here to help humanity and especially the people of Syria”.
The teenager has appeared in videos in and around rebel-held areas of Aleppo, but recently fled as regime forces, aided by Russian air strikes, encircle the city. He told the Guardian “there was the possibility of being stuck there”.
Other videos posted on the Live Updates From Syria Facebook page show the teenager distributing food at orphanages and refugee camps.
Live Updates From Syria was established by British national Tauqir Sharif and his wife Racquell Hayden-Best.
The pair continue to hold UK passports but their daughter, recently born in Turkey, has been denied British citizenship.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the organisation said it was “extremely disappointed” by the decision to cancel Bridgeman’s passport.
“It has become evidently clear that the western governments have one rule for Muslims and another for non-Muslims,” the statement said.
“Why is there one rule for Australian citizens like Matthew Gardiner who fought with the Peshmerga Kurdish militia openly and then returned home without charge? Is Oliver Bridgeman’s only crime the fact that he is a muslim???”
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said she would “not comment on individual cases or intelligence and security matters”.
“The government has consistently – and in the strongest terms – discouraged Australians from travelling to Iraq and Syria to participate in hostile activities,” she said.
“Australians travelling to Syria or Iraq not only risk committing offences, but may be kidnapped, seriously injured or even killed as a result. The Australian government cannot facilitate the safe passage of people out of the conflict zones.”
Bridgeman’s lawyer will file an appeal to the
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