Last Islamic State-linked Australian woman from Syrian camp to return despite previous ban | Australian security and counter-terrorism

An Australian woman linked to the Islamic State group has been given permission to return to Australia after the government was told it could no longer enforce a criminal restraining order.

Home secretary Tony Burke said the woman would face an unprecedented level of security monitoring once she arrived in the country, including constant monitoring and the obligation to report regularly to authorities.

She is the last of a group of Australian women and children trying to return home from a refugee camp in northern Syria, years after they left for the Middle East with their husbands and fathers fighting the Islamic State terror group.

Burke told ABC radio that the travel permit was the final stage of the temporary restraining order process regulating the woman’s movements.

The original ban on his return was issued on the advice of spy agency Asio.

“Temporary restraining order, [return] is allowed. “When permission is requested, it must be given legally,” he said.

“I am working with my department, agencies, the Australian federal police, Asio and lawyers to see any conditions we can put on this leave.

“Yesterday we received final advice that we could no longer have an exclusion clause for him.”

The woman will be monitored whenever she is at home and in public. Conditions of the permit require 24 hours’ notice before using a communications device such as a mobile phone or public pay home.

“There will be a very high level of scrutiny and surveillance,” Burke said. “This is the absolute legal limit we can reach, and our agents are ready.”

But his return in the coming days will spark renewed political criticism over Labour’s handling of the group and the months-long drama of their attempt to return home.

The women and children all spent more than a decade in the Middle East, first under Islamic State rule and then in squalid concentration camps after fleeing the violent end of the so-called caliphate.

Some of the children were born in the camp and never lived a normal life in Australia.

Members of the group faced criminal charges upon their return to Australia, including allegations of slavery, participation in a designated terrorist group and crimes against humanity.

More to come…