Group of 19 women and children linked to Islamic State land in Melbourne and Sydney with no arrests expected | Australia news
A group of 19 Australian women and children held in Syria since the defeat of the Islamic State have arrived in Melbourne and Sydney, ending seven years of detention while embroiling themselves in a heated political debate about their future.
The group of 12 children and seven women left the Syrian detention camp last week before flying home. Most either left Australia more than a decade ago or were born in Syria or Iraq after their parents left for the so-called caliphate.
A plane carrying part of the group arrived in Melbourne just after 4.30pm on Tuesday, while another plane arrived in Sydney about an hour later.
The women who landed in Melbourne had left the airport’s side gate separately by 18.40, avoiding most of the TV cameras, photographers and reporters waiting for them at the arrival gate. There was a small police presence in the arrivals hall.
A New South Wales police spokesman told the media on Tuesday evening that they did not expect any of the women who arrived in Sydney to be arrested.
Home secretary Tony Burke said on Tuesday morning that security agencies had been preparing for the return since 2014 and had “long-standing plans to manage and monitor them”.
“These are people who have made the terrible choice to join a dangerous terrorist organization and put their children in an indescribable situation,” he said.
“As we have said many times, any member of this group who commits a crime can expect to face the full force of the law.
“The government’s priority, as always, is the safety of the Australian community.”
The Sydney group is expected to include Nesrine, Sumaya and Aminah Zahab and Hyam Raad, as well as their children.
Aminah is the mother of Muhammad Zahab. ABC reported Considered a senior member of ISIS in 2019, he recruited more than a dozen family members before he was killed in 2018. He reportedly also convinced Aminah and her sister Sumaya to go to Syria.
He was 21 when he and a female cousin sneaked away from a family vacation in Lebanon to help refugees on the Turkish side of the Syrian border, his cousin Nesrine Zahab said.
He said he had no intention of entering the war-torn country.
Speaking to ABC, Nesrine Zahab said, “Who would enter a war zone? Yes, I would see Syrians because of what they have experienced.”
“I found out I was in Syria, did I have a heart attack? Of course.
“I cried and screamed and threw a fit like a little girl? I survived the biggest tantrum.”
The group returning to Melbourne was expected to include Kawsar Kanj and her five children, one of whom is now an adult, as well as Kirsty Rosse-Emile and her two children.
Kanj and her husband Majed Raad, who was acquitted almost two decades ago for his alleged role in the Pendennis terror plot, traveled to Syria from Melbourne’s northern suburbs with their three children in 2014. After the couple separated, two more children were born.
According to documents seen by Guardian Australia, Kanj’s citizenship was revoked by then home affairs minister Peter Dutton in 2019; This decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court decision.
Raad is thought to have survived the collapse of ISIS’ territory and is being held in a prison in Syria, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
Rosse-Emile was 19 when she left Melbourne’s southeast with her husband Nabil Kadmiry. After the couple left Australia, their two children, aged 9 and 6, were born. Kadmiry was also caught in 2019.
Family members of Kanj and Rosse-Emile did not respond to requests for comment.
Save the Children Australia CEO Mat Tinkler said returning children needed access to “general health and psychosocial support”.
“The political debate surrounding their future in Australia has been deeply disappointing,” Tinkler said.
“Although more attention has been paid to the situation of mothers, two-thirds of the returnee group are children. Australia must prioritize their safety, welfare and their right to live in this country as Australian citizens.”
After the Morrison government repatriated eight orphans from Syria in 2019, the Albanian government repatriated 13 children with their four mothers in October 2022.
In 2025, the two mothers and their four children returned to Melbourne after conducting return negotiations with authorities.
Last month, all nine children and their four mothers returned to Australia with the support of their families. 3 of the women were arrested and sent to prison.
Tinkler also called for the Australian woman remaining in Syria, who has been issued a temporary restraining order by the Albanian government preventing her from returning and who remains in the country with her daughter, to be allowed to leave.
The woman’s father and attorney have been contacted for comment.
