Last Australian women and children linked to IS leave Syrian camp before expected return home – report | Australia news
The last Australian women and children trapped in Al-Roj detention camp have reportedly left northeast Syria for Damascus, where they are expected to return to Australia.
Footage obtained by ABC’s news team in Syria showed a minivan leaving the camp; reported that this van was carrying the remaining seven women and 14 children from the camp, but this has not been officially confirmed.
The group, traveling in convoy with the escort of the Syrian government, is expected to book a flight to Australia in the coming days.
All are Australian citizens and have travel documents. A woman is subject to a temporary exclusion order imposed to prevent her re-entering Australia.
The Australian government has not confirmed reports that the group is expected to leave Syria. It was learned that no flight ticket reservations have been made yet. Returning to Australia may take a few days.
Tanya Plibersek said the second group would face repercussions upon their return.
“They will face the same consequences as the first group,” the federal minister told the ABC on Friday.
The Australians are the wives, widows and children of imprisoned or deceased Islamic State fighters, and many have been held in the camp for more than six years. Some of the women may face terrorism-related charges when they arrive in Australia.
But most of the women said they were forced or tricked into entering Syria or visited neighboring countries for humanitarian reasons before being smuggled into ISIS territory. Some of the children were born in the camp and never left the camp.
This is the fifth group of Australians to leave Syrian detention camps since 2019. The Morrison and Albanian governments each implemented a government-controlled rollback in 2019 and 2022.
Late last year, a group of women escaped from the nearby Al Hawl camp and headed for Beirut and Australia. Last month, four women and nine children set off from Damascus for Australia.
Three of the women were arrested and charged by Australian federal police upon arrival in Melbourne and Sydney.
These women are still in custody. Two people, Kawsar Ahmad and his daughter Zeinab Ahmad, are charged with slavery crimes, while the other person (Janai Safar) is accused of joining a terrorist organization and traveling to a prohibited terrorist zone.
The squalid and dangerous al-Roj camp, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but described by the US as a “radicalization incubator”, is being permanently closed down ahead of its expected handover to the Syrian government.
The Albanian government has claimed it has done nothing to help Australians return to their home country and warned anyone who commits crimes will be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law” when they return to Australia.
Health minister Mark Butler told morning television on Friday that the returnees had the legal right “to return to the Australian border in their own way as Australian citizens”.
“But if they have committed any crime they will be met with police at the border and potentially charged with very serious offences, as we saw a few weeks ago.”
The US government, which funds the operation of the camp, has increased pressure on Australia, insisting that countries take back their citizens and making repeated offers to assist in their repatriation.
With a report from the Australian Associated Press
