MELBOURNE, Australia — Nineteen Australian women and children with ties to the Islamic State group have arranged flights back from Syria, with some potentially facing criminal charges upon arrival, according to Australia’s government on Tuesday.
The group consists of seven women and 12 children who were scheduled to land in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday. This comes less than three weeks following the return of 13 individuals in comparable circumstances to Australia’s two most populous cities.
Among the four women from the previous flights, three were hit with slavery and terrorism charges and are currently incarcerated.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated that any of the 19 individuals heading to Australia who committed crimes “can expect to face the full force of the law.”
“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Burke declared in a statement.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he continued.
Burke explained that Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been making preparations for their return since 2014 and have established long-term plans to manage and monitor them.
“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he stated.
Following this latest group’s departure, a minimum of two Australians will stay at Roj camp, a facility in northeastern Syria close to the Iraq border where individuals connected to IS have been detained since IS forces in the Middle East were defeated in 2019.
A mother who was blocked from returning to Australia in February through a temporary exclusion order was not part of this traveling group.
The government previously disclosed that one woman at Roj was subject to an order that can be utilized to prevent high-risk citizens from returning for as long as two years.
These exclusion orders were established through legislation passed in 2019 to stop defeated IS fighters from coming back to Australia.
The most recent Australian group returned from Syria on May 7, also without government assistance.
Kawsar Ahmed, also known as Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were taken into custody upon landing in Melbourne regarding allegations that their family had purchased a female Yazidi slave.
Janai Safar, 32, was arrested at Sydney Airport when she arrived with her 9-year-old son on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and entering or remaining in territory controlled by a terrorist organization.
Australian governments have brought Australian women and children back from Syrian detention camps on two separate occasions. Other Australians have returned discreetly without government support.
