$22m to steer migrants from radicalisation

In a bid to stop vulnerable young migrants being radicalised, the government will roll out a program to help them engage with communities.

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(File: Getty) Source: Getty Images

More than $22 million will be poured into educating and helping migrants land jobs to battle the radicalisation of young people in Australia.

"There is no excuse for young people making the choices that put them on the deadly road to Damascus," Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday.

The program will see thousands of young refugees and vulnerable migrants undergo employment and education courses, and take part in sporting activities, from 2016.

The increasing number of Australians joining extremist groups overseas, particularly in Syria, has prompted the federal government to bolster its counter-radicalisation approach.

Among the radicalised youth has been Bankstown teenager Abdullah Elmir, who appeared in a Islamic State propaganda video.

Seventeen-year-old Taha El Baf and his three brothers are also feared to be fighting with IS, after leaving Australia under the guise of a holiday to Thailand last November.

Mr Morrison said we couldn't afford vulnerable youth to disengage from society.

"Some of them are vulnerable targets for extremist predators in their communities seeking to proselytise, indoctrinate and radicalise," he said.

The Transition Support for Young Refugees and Other Vulnerable Young Migrants program is made up of four measures.

Among them is a sports engagement initiative that will see 10,000 young people playing sport with community groups and a job readiness program for 2000 young refugees and migrants.

A strong connections to education measure will help young people stick with their education by building self-confidence and social connections.

The government will also spend the next financial year creating a vocational skills program, which will eventually be piloted.

Mr Morrison said the journey to radicalisation needed to stop before it even began.

The program follows several large-scale counter-terrorism operations in Victoria and NSW since last September, which have led to the arrest of more than 20 people, many of them young men.


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