The Australian government has called on the families and friends of young people who might have joined foreign terrorist fighters in Syria and Iraq to convince them to come home, as one 16-year-old has been spirited back into the country.
The call came a day after Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the threat of a terrorist attack on home soil had been lifted from medium to high.
A spokeswoman from the Department of the Attorney-General said they wanted anyone in contact with those in the conflict zones to talk them into returning, as in the case of runaway Bankstown teenager Feiz, who came back to Sydney last week.
Feiz and his friend, 17-year-old Abdullah Elmir, ran away in June, taking flights from Sydney to Perth to Malaysia, Thailand and then Turkey.
Family friends of Abdullah, an academically smart young man with a bright future who had told his mother he was going fishing when he secretly left Australia, believe he is alive and has finally reached Iraq, but they have no other details of his whereabouts or wellbeing.
"We know there are some young Australians who think they've made the right choice in becoming involved in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq," the spokeswoman said.
"But that choice only adds to the suffering – and it's putting those young Australians themselves in mortal danger.
"If you are in contact with these people, tell them they are better off coming home."
She said that if they did not have a passport, they can call the Australian Consular Emergency Centre for help.
"There are safer, legal ways of helping the people affected by these conflicts than travelling overseas to fight."
The nation's terror threat level was raised amid concerns that events in the Middle East will encourage a "lone wolf" type attack by people who support the Islamic State terrorist group.
Australia is ready to support the US as it mounts military attacks against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Australia has already sent arms to Kurdish rebels fighting the terrorist group.
The increased threat level means greater security at airports, government buildings and at gatherings of large crowds. However, the cost of raising the terror level will be a matter for state police forces, according to a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott's office.
"It would be difficult to quantify a cost," she said.
Australian authorities have said that about 60 Australians were among the 10,000 foreign fighters who have joined the terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
The outgoing head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, David Irvine, has also said that "tens" of people had already returned home from the conflict zones.
Since the threat level was raised on Friday, the spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's office said they had experienced an increased number of calls to the national security hotline.
She said the many intelligence reports being made to the hotline would be passed on to national security agencies for further investigation and they wanted to "thank the Australian community for their continued vigilance".
Australian authorities said it was their long-standing policy not to comment on specific security or intelligence matters and so would not comment about the return of Bankstown teenager Feiz.
Feiz was intercepted by his father while he was en route to Iraq and taken to Lebanon.
There have been at least three cases of Sydney teenagers running away to join the fighting, but Muslim community members have told Fairfax Media that many of the young men are not motivated by violence but by a genuine desire to provide humanitarian assistance, and they just do not realise what they were getting into.
It is a sentiment echoed by the authorities who have warned that Australians in Syria and Iraq are "finding themselves in life-threatening situations they are not prepared for. They are being kidnapped, injured and killed."
This scenario proved true for 22-year-olds Amira Ali and her husband Yusef who were killed and then had their bodies dismembered by a jihadist group just days after they arrived in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Their deaths in January have been followed by a string of other young Australians.
