SYDNEY, May 26 (Reuters) – A cohort of Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State militant group has returned home from a Syrian refugee camp, the second such group to arrive back in Australia this month.
Local media reported two women and seven children landed in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon via Doha. Another flight carrying four women and six children arrived in Sydney in the evening.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was not assisting their travel and that any who had committed crimes “can expect to face the full force of the law”.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” Burke said in a statement.
The latest arrivals come after four women and nine children returned to Australia earlier this month after more than seven years in a Syrian camp. Two of the women were arrested at Melbourne Airport and charged with slavery offences, while one in Sydney was charged with terror-related offences, including allegedly joining Islamic State.
New South Wales state police told media waiting at Sydney airport for the latest returnees that none would be arrested. It was unclear whether arrests would be made in Melbourne.
News of the women’s return has drawn criticism from political opponents, who say the centre-left government failed to stop their travel to Australia. The government has said there were “very serious limits” on preventing citizens from re-entering the country.
One woman from western Sydney was issued a temporary exclusion order by the government, preventing her from returning, public service broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Her child was not covered by the order, but decided to stay, the report added.
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have prepared for such returns for more than a decade and have plans to monitor those arriving, the government said.
“Any breaches of the law will mean that these people will face the full force of the law to the extent available upon the advice of the security agencies,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during parliamentary question time.
Between 2012 and 2016, some Australian women travelled to Syria to join their husbands who were allegedly members of ISIS. Following the group’s territorial collapse in 2019, many were detained in camps.
In January, the United States began moving detained ISIS members out of Syria after the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had been guarding around a dozen facilities holding fighters and affiliated civilians, including foreigners.
(Reporting by Renju Jose and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kate Mayberry)
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