13 IS-Linked Women and Children Book Tickets to Return to Australia

A group of 13 women and children with links to Islamic State have booked tickets to return to Australia, the government said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said it has not and will not provide any help to the four women and nine children who have spent years in a Syrian camp. They form part of a larger group of 34 believed to include wives, widows and children of IS fighters.

Some individuals will be arrested and charged when the group arrives in Australia, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said.

The larger cohort left the camp in February but returned for technical reasons after the Australian government refused to officially repatriate them.

These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organization and to place their children in an unspeakable situation, Burke told reporters on Wednesday.

As we have said many times, any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law, he added.

The alert came the moment the booking took place, and that was provided to us this morning, Burke said. He noted very serious limits on what the government can do to stop a citizen returning home.

The government has prepared for the group's return since 2014 with long-standing plans to manage and monitor them, Burke said.

Barrett said investigators have collected evidence for more than a decade on whether anyone in the group committed terrorism offenses as well as crimes against humanity offenses such as engaging in slave trading.

She did not say how many of the 13 returning will be arrested but confirmed that those not arrested will remain under investigation.

Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said he was not concerned immediately by the group's return but they will get our attention as you'd expect.

It's up to them what they do when they get here, and if they start to exhibit signs that concern us, we and the police, through the joint counter-terrorism teams, will take action, Burgess said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Of the larger cohort of 34, 23 are believed to be children. The group had lived in the al-Roj camp in northern Syria since 2019, when IS was driven from its final foothold in Syria.