A group of 19 Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State are expected to arrive in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday. The cohort, consisting of seven women and 12 children, left a Syrian detention camp last week. Most of these individuals either left Australia more than a decade ago or were born in Syria or Iraq after their parents traveled to the so-called caliphate.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated that the government has not provided any assistance to the group and that those who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law. Burke described the decision to join the dangerous terrorist organization as a horrific choice that placed children in an unspeakable situation. He noted that law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing to manage and monitor such returns since 2014 to ensure the safety of the Australian community.
This arrival follows a similar group of 13 people who returned on May 7. From that earlier cohort, three women remain behind bars. Kawsar Ahmed and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed were arrested over allegations that their family bought a female Yazidi slave, while Janai Safar was charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and entering a region controlled by such an organization.
The returns have sparked political debate, with opponents arguing the government failed to stop the repatriations, while the government cited serious limits on preventing citizens from re-entering the country. To manage high-risk citizens, the government has used exclusion orders introduced in 2019, which can prevent return for up to two years; one mother was blocked from returning in February. Following the departure of the latest group, at least two Australians remain in the Roj camp in northeast Syria.