Members of Australian households at Roj Camp in jap Syria, housing folks with alleged ties to Islamic State militants, put together to go away for Damascus as a part of a second repatriation effort by Syrian authorities, Friday, April 24, 2026.
Baderkhan Ahmad/AP
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Baderkhan Ahmad/AP
MELBOURNE, Australia — Plenty of Australian girls with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants can be arrested and face prison investigations in the event that they return from Syria, police mentioned Wednesday.
The Australian authorities had been alerted Wednesday that 4 girls and 9 kids had booked flights from Damascus to Australia, Residence Affairs Minister Tony Burke mentioned. He didn’t say after they had been anticipated to reach.
Australian Federal Police since 2015 have been investigating the habits of Australians who had traveled to the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate that had been centered in Syria, Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett mentioned.
Investigations had included potential terrorism offenses and crimes towards humanity similar to slave buying and selling, she mentioned.
“Some individuals will be arrested and charged. Some will face continued investigations when they arrive in Australia,” Barrett instructed reporters.
The youngsters would bear applications to counter violent extremism, she mentioned.
The federal government was required to offer the group journey paperwork however has repeatedly mentioned it was not serving to repatriate them.
“The individuals concerned traveled … in support of one of the most horrific terrorist organizations we’ve seen in recent history or in our lifetimes,” Burke instructed reporters.
“There is a reason why the government has drawn a very hard line saying we will do nothing to assist. The government’s complete lack of support for these individuals is a direct reflection of the decisions that they made,” he added.
The ladies had been held in Roj Camp close to Syria’s border with Iraq. They left the camp final week, however the Syrian authorities instructed The Related Press then that the Australian authorities had “refused to receive them.”
Burke mentioned there was little his authorities might do to stop their return. “There are very serious limits on what can be done with respect to preventing a citizen of a country returning to their country,” Burke mentioned.
A earlier try to return 34 girls and kids to Australia from the identical camp in February was turned again by Syrian authorities.
On that event, Australia’s authorities banned one of many girls from returning.
The girl, whom the federal government didn’t establish, had been issued with a short lived exclusion order which Australia can use to stop high-risk residents from returning for as much as two years.
The orders had been created by legal guidelines launched to in 2019 to stop defeated Islamic State fighters from returning to Australia. There are not any public stories of an order being issued earlier than.
Such orders cannot be made towards kids youthful than 14. However Australia has dominated out separating kids from their moms.
Burke mentioned the order made in February that banned the girl’s return remained in place.
Below Australian regulation, it was an offense punishable by as much as 10 years in jail to journey to the previous Syrian Islamic State group stronghold of Raqqa and not using a professional cause from 2014 to 2017.
Former Islamic States fighters from a number of international locations, together with their wives and kids, had been held in a community of camps and detention facilities in northeast Syria after the militant group misplaced management of its territory in Syria in 2019. Although defeated, the group nonetheless has fighters that perform assaults in Syria and Iraq.
The bigger al-Hol camp has now been closed, and 1000’s of suspected IS militants beforehand held in Syria had been transferred to Iraq by the U.S. army to face trial there.
The strikes got here after combating between authorities forces and the SDF in January. Authorities forces seized a lot of the territory previously held by the SDF. Amid the chaos, many detainees fled al-Hol and a few prisoners escaped from a detention heart.
Australian governments have repatriated Australian girls and kids from Syrian detention camps on two events. Different Australians have returned with out authorities help.
