The Australian Federal Police is preparing to arrest the wives of jailed or dead ISIS fighters as they return to Australia.
The Government confirmed on Wednesday that a group of Australian women who married ISIS fighters, and their children, are landing tomorrow.
The group has been held in camps in Syria for seven years.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation”.
Context
Australia listed ISIS (also known as IS or Daesh) a terrorist organisation in 2005.
The group occupied one-third of Syria from 2014 to 2017, forming a ‘Caliphate’ governed under a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.
The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) says ISIS “does not represent Islam or the Muslim world in any way”.
ISIS lost all of its territory by 2019, and many of its fighters and their families were placed in detention camps across Syria, Libya, and Iraq. This included dozens of Australian citizens.
ISIS Brides
In 2022, the Federal Government assisted four Australian women, dubbed ‘ISIS brides’, and their 13 children from a Syrian camp.
At least 34 Australians remained in the camps, the majority of whom were children.
In 2023, Save the Children Australia (STCA) unsuccessfully took the Government to court in a bid to force the repatriation of the women and children. The court ruled Australia had no legal obligation to assist because it did not control the circumstances of their detention.
In February, multiple media outlets reported the group had made an attempt to return to Australia.
Around 50km into their journey from Al-Roj, a detention camp in north-east Syria, the group was told to go back.
The Sydney Morning Herald spoke with a camp official, who said the group’s departure to the capital, Damascus, had been “postponed”.
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The unsuccessful attempt was put down to Syrian Government permissions.
The Federal Government and STCA confirmed to the Herald they were not involved with the attempted return.
Return
At a press conference on Wednesday, authorities confirmed part of the group is expected to return to Australia this week.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said some of the returning women will be arrested and charged, while others remain under investigation.
Potential charges include terrorism offences and crimes against humanity, including allegations of slave trading.
Police have not yet revealed how many people will be charged.
The children will undergo community integration programs, receive mental health support, and be enrolled in programs countering violent extremism.
One person in the group has an active exclusion order against them, prohibiting their return to Australia.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the lack of Government support for the group reflects “the decisions that they made”.
“These individuals travelled to join one of the most horrific terrorist organisations we’ve seen in recent history,” he said.
Opposition
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam called on the Government to “stop them before they get here”.
“Labor is rolling out the welcome mat by providing passports and not applying the temporary exclusion orders at their disposal,” Duniam said.
He accused the Government of “putting our community safety at risk”.
