A group of Australian women and children, with alleged links to the extremist group Islamic State, have returned home after years spent in a Syrian camp. Their arrival on Thursday saw some immediately arrested at Australian airports, according to local media reports.
The Australian government had confirmed on Wednesday that four women and nine children, previously detained in northeast Syria, were set to return to the country, but stressed they would receive no state assistance.
One woman and her child landed in Sydney on Thursday evening via Doha, with police boarding the aircraft to take the woman into custody, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Sydney Morning Herald reported. A second group subsequently arrived in Melbourne. Both airports reportedly saw a significant police presence in anticipation of their arrival.
The office of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke did not respond to requests for comment regarding the group’s travel arrangements.
The returning group had travelled to Syria “in support of one of the most horrific terrorist organisations in recent history or in our lifetimes”, Mr Burke said previously.
Anthony Albanese has also condemned the returnees. “These are people who have made what is a horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and place their children in an extraordinary situation,” the prime minister said.
Australian Federal Police said earlier that some in the group could be arrested and charged on arrival, while others might remain under investigation. The children are expected to enter community reintegration and support programmes.
Some Australian women travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016 to join their husbands, who had allegedly become ISIS members. Following ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019, many relatives of suspected fighters were detained in camps, including al-Roj in the northeast of the country where the latest Australian returnees were held, according to the ABC. 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.
The Australian government repatriated four women and 13 children from Syrian camps in 2022.
About 21 Australians remain in al-Roj, the ABC reported.
Syria holds many former Isis fighters, along with their wives and children, in a network of camps and detention centres in the northeast.
