Islamic State-linked families stuck because of Australia’s refusal: Syrian officials
Abby Sewell
Beirut: A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria housing people with alleged links to ISIS militants were stranded in the country after Australian authorities refused to allow them to return, Syrian officials said on Wednesday.
Last week, 13 women and children from four families left the Roj camp, a remote facility near the Iraqi border that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed for the Syrian capital.
An official from the camp said at the time that the families were expected to stay in Damascus for about 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.
In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their situation, Syria’s information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that “the Australian government has refused to take them in.”
In the statement made by the information ministry, it was stated that they were turned back before reaching Damascus International Airport.
“These families are still waiting for a solution that can only be achieved through coordination with relevant international parties.”
“We are not providing any support or assistance to these people in terms of return,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told a separate news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that her government had made it “very clear that we are not assisting in their repatriation.”
The Syrian Ministry of Information said the families, through a lawyer, were handed over their passports by an unidentified “person” while they were still in northeastern Syria, in an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Lebanese-Australian doctor Jamal Rifi previously told Australian media he was helping coordinate repatriation efforts. Rifi could not be reached for comment.
An attempt to send 34 women and children back to Australia from the camp in February was turned down by Syrian authorities.
Former ISIS fighters from many countries have been held, along with their wives and children, in a network of camps and detention centers in northeastern Syria after the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Although they were defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.
The larger al-Hol camp was closed, and thousands of suspected ISIS militants previously held in Syria were transferred to Iraq by the US military to be tried there.
The moves follow clashes between government forces and the SDF in January. Government forces captured most of the territory previously held by the SDF. Amid the chaos, many detainees escaped from Al Hol and some detainees also escaped from the detention center.
Australian governments have twice repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps. Other Australians also returned without government assistance.
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