A group of Australian women and children with links to Islamic State (IS) returned to Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday, after being stranded for years in a Syrian camp.
A plane carrying two women and their children landed in Melbourne just after16:30 local time on Tuesday (07:30 BST), followed by another plane in Sydney about an hour later, with four women and their children, authorities said.
Some of the women may face charges over their decision to travel to Syria about a decade ago.
One woman, who has been banned from returning to Australia for two years for national security reasons, is understood to still be in Syria with her child.
Earlier in May, three of four Australian women who returned home with nine children were arrested and charged with offences including crimes against humanity and joining IS.
In confirming the more recent group’s return, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government “has not and will not provide any assistance to this group”.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he said.
“As we have said many times – any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.”
Authorities have been preparing for the group’s return since 2014, Burke said, and they have “long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them”.
The group arriving on Tuesday are understood to be the last Australians in the al-Roj camp in north-east Syria where families of IS fighters have been held since 2019.
They reportedly left the camp on Thursday and boarded planes to Australia on Monday in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Australian media have reported that the returning women include Kirsty Rosse-Emile, who left Australia when she was 19 and who told the ABC last year it was “not my choice” to be in Syria.
Others include Nesrine Zahab, who has said she was tricked into travelling to Syria by her cousin, IS recruiter Muhammad Zahab; Sumaya Zahab, Muhammad’s sister, and Aminah Zahab, Muhammad’s mother.
The woman who remains in Syria due to the government’s temporary exclusion order is understood to have decided to keep her child with her. The child, an Australian citizen who has a passport, is not prohibited from returning home.
On 7 May, four women and nine children from the same camp returned home to Australia with police arresting three of the women and charging them with various offences including crimes against humanity and entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone. [BBC News]
