A political row has broken out in Australia following reports that a group of women linked to Isis and their children were returning to the country from a detention camp in Syria before Christmas.
The Australian newspaper claimed the group from Al-Roj camp in northeast Syria was expected to be resettled in New South Wales and Victoria in what would be the third such repatriation mission since 2019.
The women had travelled to Syria and Iraq during the Isis rule and were detained when the group collapsed in 2019. Many of them had children there.
The government denied organising a repatriation mission. It was “aware of media reporting about a cohort including Australian citizens seeking to return from Syria” but was “not providing assistance to this cohort”.
“Our ability to provide consular assistance to Australians in Syria is extremely limited due to the dangerous security situation,” a spokesperson for home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said.
Sources familiar with the situation in the Syrian camps said the prospect of Australians returning remained uncertain.
At least 14 Australian women and 20 children are believed to remain in Syria, the youngest just five years old, according to News.com.au.
“It’s still a matter of if, not when,” a source was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald. “You can’t do this without government support. They need to issue passports, give security clearance and brief state and territory governments about what to expect.”
The latest controversy echoes the backlash in Sydney when the government repatriated four women and 13 children from Syria in October 2022. That mission was the first after three years of hesitation and only occurred once the federal election had passed.
Andrew Hastie, the opposition’s home affairs spokesperson, condemned any plans to return the women. “I just don’t think Australians want people who’ve betrayed their country and potentially pose a security risk coming back,” he said.
“They threw their lot in with Islamic State. There are consequences to that, and it’s as simple as that. The government needs to come clean and tell the Australian people exactly what’s happening here.”
Advocates argue that many of the women were coerced into travelling to Syria and have no allegiance to Isis.
Save the Children Australia, which has campaigned for their return, said that reports of a new repatriation plan offered a small measure of hope to Australians trapped in dire conditions. “These camps are one of the worst places in the world to be a child and we hold grave concerns for the lives, health, and safety of these innocent Australian children,” the group’s chief executive Mat Tinkler was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.
In 2023, Save the Children launched an unsuccessful legal action against the home affairs minister, arguing that the detention of Australians in Syria was unlawful.
Radio host Ben Fordham reported that New South Wales police were preparing for a possible arrival of the women and children at the Sydney airport. He had learned this, he said, after approaching Mr Burke’s office last week with questions about what he described as an “imminent” plan.
