SYDNEY, May 26 (Reuters) – A group of seven Australian women and 12 children linked to the Islamic State militant group have made travel plans to return home, authorities said on Tuesday, in what would be the second such Australian group to leave a Syrian refugee camp this month.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was not assisting their travel and that any who have 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.
Burke did not say when the second group would arrive and his office did not respond immediately to a request for more details. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported they left a camp in northeast Syria last Thursday and could land in the coming days.
Four women and nine children returned to Australia earlier this month after more than seven years in a Syrian camp. Two of those women were charged with slavery offences, while another was charged with terror-related offences, including allegedly joining Islamic State.
The planned return has drawn criticism from opponents, who say the centre-left government failed to stop repatriations, while the government said there were “very serious limits” on preventing Australian citizens from re-entering the country.
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.
Between 2012 and 2016, some Australian women travelled to Syria to join their husbands who were allegedly members of ISIS. Following the collapse of the caliphate 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 in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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