Australia Welcomes Home 13 IS-Linked Women and Children from Syrian Camp

Thirteen women and children with links to the Islamic State group arrived home to Australia after years in a Syrian detention camp.

The group had lived in the al-Roj detention camp since 2019. They had sparked heated political debate in Australia, with the government stating it would offer no help for their return.

Three women and eight children, believed to be members of the same family, landed in Melbourne late Thursday afternoon. Another woman and her child arrived in Sydney shortly afterward.

Police said some of the women will face arrest and charges after arrival, while others remain under investigation.

The Melbourne group includes grandmother Kawsar Abbas, her adult daughters Zeinab and Zahra Ahmed, and their eight children. Abbas is married to Mohammad Ahmad, who ran a charity Australian police suspect was used to send cash to IS. He denied the accusation in a 2019 interview with the national broadcaster ABC after reporters found him in a Syrian prison.

Local media named the Sydney arrival as Janai Safar with her nine-year-old son, born in Syria. In a 2019 interview with the Australian newspaper, she said she chose to go to Syria herself and did not want to return to Australia for fear of arrest and losing her child.

Police Commissioner Krissy Barratt confirmed Wednesday that some women would face arrest and charges. Potential charges include terrorism offenses such as entering or remaining in declared areas, and crimes against humanity such as engaging in slave trading.

The 13 are part of a larger cohort of 34, believed to include wives, widows and children of IS fighters. That group left the camp in February but returned for technical reasons, with the Australian government refusing official repatriation.

One cohort member received a temporary exclusion order earlier this year, barring return for up to two years. That person did not arrive Thursday.

Boarding a connecting flight to Melbourne in Doha, the women told an ABC reporter they were excited to return home. Australia was like paradise to them, they said. "We just want our children to be safe. It was like hell for them" in Syria, one said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Australia learned Wednesday that the women were returning, when tickets were booked. "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 told reporters. He added that any cohort members who committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.