Second Group of Australian Women and Children Linked to Islamic State Return From Syria

A second group of Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State militant group returned from a Syrian refugee camp, with local media reporting two women and seven children landed in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon via Doha and another flight carrying four women and six children arrived in Sydney in the evening.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was not assisting their travel and that anyone who had committed crimes “can expect to face the full force of the law,” while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said any breaches of the law would mean the people involved would face the full force of the law to the extent available based on the advice of security agencies.

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The latest arrivals follow the return earlier this month of four women and nine children to Australia after more than seven years in a Syrian camp, with two women arrested at Melbourne Airport and charged with slavery offences and one woman in Sydney charged with terror-related offences including allegedly joining Islamic State.

New South Wales state police told media at Sydney airport that none of the returnees would be arrested, while it was unclear whether any arrests would be made in Melbourne, and the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that one woman from western Sydney was issued a temporary exclusion order preventing her from returning.

The BBC reported that a plane carrying two women and their children landed in Melbourne just after 16:30 local time on Tuesday, followed about an hour later by another plane in Sydney with four women and their children, and authorities said some women may face charges over their decision to travel to Syria about a decade ago.

Burke emphasized that the government “has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” and he said “These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation.”

Albanese told Parliament that “Any breaches of the law will mean that these people will face the full force of the law,” and the BBC added that authorities had been preparing for the group’s return since 2014 with “long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them.”

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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) searched the returnees’ belongings and downloaded their devices as part of “operational responses,” while AFP said no-one was arrested or charged and investigations into activities in Syria were ongoing.

The BBC said one woman banned from returning to Australia for two years for national security reasons was understood to still be in Syria with her child, and it noted that the child is an Australian citizen with a passport and is not prohibited from returning home.

In Sydney, the BBC reported that the returning women include Kirsty Rosse-Emile, who told the ABC last year it was “not my choice” to be in Syria, and it also named Nesrine Zahab, Sumaya Zahab, and Aminah Zahab as part of the group.

The return is framed as the second such repatriation effort this month, with the BBC reporting that 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.

The BBC said the women reportedly left the camp on Thursday and boarded planes to Australia on Monday in the Syrian capital of Damascus, and it added that 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 offences including crimes against humanity and entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone.

The Hill reported that two planes carrying 19 Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State group landed in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday, and it said no one had been charged on arrival while investigations into their activities in Syria were continuing.

The Hill also reported that three of four women who returned home earlier were charged with slavery and terrorism offences and remain behind bars, and it said Jamal Rifi’s bid to return 34 Australian women and children from Syria failed in February after Syrian authorities blocked their convoy’s route to Damascus and turned them back to Roj camp.

In a separate account, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the cohort that arrived at Melbourne Airport just after 4:30pm included so-called ISIS brides Kirsty Rosse-Emile and Kawsar Kanj and seven children, while four women including Aminah Zahab, her daughter Sumaya Zahab, her niece Nesrine Zahab, and Hyam Raad along with six children landed aboard flight QR908 in Sydney.