Australia will need to balance the security risks posed by Islamic State-linked women and children with their welfare as they attempt to return after years in a Syrian detention camp.
Four women and their nine children left the al-Roj camp on Friday to travel to the capital Damascus with plans to board a flight back to Australia, according to multiple media reports.
A source close to the families told Nine mastheads the group had already secured plane tickets to return.
But this was disputed by a government source, not authorised to speak publicly, who told AAP none of the 13 women or children had been flagged as having booked a flight home.
Terrorism expert Levi West said authorities would find it difficult managing the group's return if they were to make it back to Australia.
"There are a bunch of children in that cohort and it's really important their welfare is considered alongside security," Dr West, a research fellow at the Australian National University, said.
"It's entirely possible the women will face prosecution, which will be very challenging for authorities as evidence will be coming from a war zone.
"If we are to uphold equality before the law, then we must fulfil our legal obligation to everyone who holds Australian citizenship, even if we really don't like them."
Security agencies had been preparing for the group's return and anyone who had committed a crime would face the consequences when they re-entered Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.
"People in this cohort need to know that if they have committed a crime and if they return to Australia they will be met with the full force of the law," he said in a statement.
A group of about 30 women and children has been trying to return home to Australia from Syria for years after travelling to the Middle East with men who sought to fight for Islamic State before the caliphate was toppled in 2019.
The larger cohort recently attempted to leave the al-Roj camp for Damascus in order to travel to Australia but were turned around by local authorities and forced to return.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said a "policy of self-managed returns" was an abdication of the government's responsibility to make hard decisions in the national interest.
"If they have not done security checks over the last four years yet issued them passports, it indicates tacit approval of terrorist sympathisers to come back," he said.
One of the women from the wider group was barred from entering the country because of fears she could pose a security risk, and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said more should be excluded.
"These are women ... who were a party to some of the most horrendous crimes in the history of the world," he said.
"If we've got a temporary exclusion on one, we should be doing everything to get a temporary exclusion on the lot."
