MELBOURNE — Australian officials say several women with alleged ties to Islamic State will be arrested or face criminal investigations if they return from Syria. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said four women and nine children have booked flights from Damascus to Australia; he did not give a date for their arrival.
Federal police have been investigating Australians who traveled to IS-held territory since 2015. Authorities say inquiries have looked into potential terrorism offenses and crimes against humanity, including allegations of slave trading. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said some returnees will be arrested and charged, while others will remain under investigation. She added the children will be placed in programs to counter violent extremism.
Burke said the government is legally obliged to issue travel documents but is not assisting repatriation, stressing that Canberra will not actively help people who travelled in support of IS. The women had been held in Roj Camp near the Syria-Iraq border and left the camp last week. Syrian authorities previously told the Associated Press that Australia had refused to receive them.
Burke also noted there are strict limits on preventing citizens from returning to their country. In February, a separate attempt to repatriate 34 women and children from the same region was turned back by Syrian authorities. At that time Australia issued a temporary exclusion order banning one woman from returning. Those exclusion orders, created under 2019 laws aimed at keeping defeated IS fighters out of Australia, can bar high-risk citizens for up to two years. They cannot be imposed on children under 14, and the government has ruled out separating children from their mothers. The February exclusion order remains in force.
Under Australian law, traveling to the former IS stronghold of Raqqa between 2014 and 2017 without a legitimate reason can carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
After IS lost territorial control in Syria in 2019, former fighters, their wives and children were held in camps and detention centers in northeastern Syria. Although IS no longer controls territory, affiliates continue to stage attacks in Syria and Iraq. The larger al-Hol camp has been closed, and thousands of suspected militants previously held in Syria were transferred to Iraq by U.S. forces to face trial. Those movements followed January fighting between Syrian government forces and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, during which the government seized much SDF territory and many detainees fled camps or escaped detention.
Australian governments have previously repatriated women and children from Syrian camps on two occasions, and some Australians have returned without government assistance.