‘ISIS brides’ preparing to return home from Syria
Spy agencies are on alert as a group of Australian women and children linked to Islamic State plan to return home from Syria after years spent in a detention camp.
According to media reports, the four women and their nine children left Al Roj camp in Syria on Friday for Damascus, where they planned to board a plane back to Australia.
A source close to the families told the Sydney Morning Herald and Age they had bought plane tickets to Australia.
But this was disputed by a government source not authorized to speak publicly, who told AAP that none of the 13 women or children were marked as having booked flights home.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the government was not involved in repatriating the group but spy agencies were following the case closely.
“Obviously our intelligence agencies are at work,” he told ABC Radio National on Monday.
“We are not providing any assistance for these people to return to Australia,” Mr Marles said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said security agencies were preparing for the group’s return and that anyone who committed crimes would face consequences when Australia returns to power.
“People in this group need to know that if they have committed a crime and return to Australia they will be dealt with by the full force of the law,” he said in a statement.
A group of around 30 women and children have been trying to return to Australia from Syria for years after traveling to the Middle East with men who wanted to fight for the Islamic State before the caliphate was overthrown in 2019.
Lawyers claim some of the women were forced to leave Australia.
One of the women was banned from entering the country over fears she could pose a security risk, and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said more should be excluded.
“These are women who have been complicit in some of the most horrific crimes in the history of the world,” she told Seven’s Sunrise programme.
“If there is a temporary exclusion in one area, we should do everything to ensure that that area is also temporarily excluded,” Mr Joyce said.
