Volunteers

The Australian Foreign Volunteers serving in the Kurdish YPG-YPJ and Kurdish Peshmerga against ISIL/Daesh are unpaid and completely self funded. They are there primarily for humanitarian reasons, to stop the atrocities being committed by ISIL/Daesh on the people of Syria and Iraq. They are not mercenaries or adventurers and gain no personal advantage for their time there. Many Volunteers come with little to no previous military experience and are expected to endure long hours, extremely hot days and cold nights and weeks of continuous duty on the front. Weapons and ammunition are in short supply, medical support is basic and food is rationed. The enemy ISIL is cruel and ruthless with no respect for human life and is better supplied, armed and equipped. Despite these odds morale among the volunteers is high and so is their camaraderie. They are winning. Despite what people may think about Australians getting involved in this conflict, the moral distinction between Australians who fight for ISIL/Daesh and those that fight against them cannot be argued. This petition does not encourage anyone to travel to Syria or Iraq to join this war against terror. Australians should be advised against it but not charged and prosecuted as criminals if they have not joined a listed terror group or committed a war crime. All we want to see is Australians who fight against Daesh/ISIL to be treated no differently to the dozens of American, Canadian, British, Scottish, German, French, Israeli and other volunteers who have returned home from the YPG.