Last Islamic State-linked woman Hodan Abby set to return to Australia
The last of the ISIS-linked Australian women trapped in a detention camp in Syria has been given permission to return to Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has announced.
Sydney woman Hodan Abby was prevented from boarding a plane in Damascus in May under a temporary restraining order issued by the federal government.
She was later believed to have disappeared into the Syrian prison system along with her disabled teenage daughter.
Burke said Abby had formally requested to return to Australia and the government could no longer prevent her from returning to the country.
“We received final advice yesterday that we could no longer have an exclusion condition for him,” Burke told ABC radio on Thursday morning.
Burke said Australian intelligence and security agencies were ready for his arrival and that permission to return would include a number of monitoring measures.
“Where he lives, where he works, where he works, if he books a ticket anywhere, he’ll have to declare that he can’t use any telecommunications equipment without giving 24 hours’ notice,” Burke said.
Government sources said Abby would be subject to “significant and invasive surveillance.”
