Albanese says he has ‘no sympathy’ for ISIS brides seeking to return to Australia

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he has no sympathy for a cohort of 34 ISIS-linked Australian families attempting to re-enter the country, saying the government would not provide any assistance to the group.

“We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation,” Albanese said on ABC Radio.

The prime minister’s position seems to conflict with statements of the camp’s governor, Hakamia Ibrahim, who told a journalist in Syria overnight that the Australian government had “issued passports and the necessary documents for the families, and informed their relatives to receive their loved ones from the camp”.

The group of 34 women and children began their journey back to Australia late on Monday before being forced to return to the Roj refugee camp. If they made it to Australia, Albanese said, they would “face the full force of the law”.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and a spokesman for Foreign Minister Penny Wong have failed to answer questions to clarify the situation about what documents, if any, the Australian government issued to allow the families to travel on Monday.

Liberal Senator Jonno Duniam called for the government to impose temporary exclusion orders on the women to prevent them returning to Australia.

Duniam, who served as opposition home affairs spokesman until last week’s Liberal leadership change, said that “the government must commit 100 per cent to doing everything to prevent these people from re-entering Australia while they present a risk”.

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in relation to Duniam’s call that the government was “constantly receiving advice from our agencies about whether the threshold for Temporary Exclusion Orders has been met,” and would “always act in accordance with advice”.

Albanese said in the ABC interview that: “Australian law applies and there are obligations that Australian officials have.”

This is a reference to the requirement under Australian law for the government to assist citizens stranded without a passport overseas if they present themselves to an Australian embassy.

Advocates for the families told this masthead last year that, since 2022, when Albanese adopted the “no assistance” stance, the wives and children of former Islamic State fighters have been required to find their own way to an embassy – the closest being in Beirut.

When two women and four children were smuggled out of the Syrian camp, al-Hawl, and into Lebanon last year, it was on this basis they were given passports to return to Melbourne.

But until now, the government’s stance has effectively trapped dozens of women and children in the better-regulated al-Roj camp north-east Syrian camp. It also precluded an offer by the American military to assist.

Albanese adopted a hard line to the repatriations on Tuesday, telling the ABC: “My mother would have said ‘If you make your bed you lie in it’.

“These people went overseas supporting Islamic State and went there to provide support for people who basically want a caliphate … We want to make it clear, as we have, to the people involved, if there are any breaches of the law, they will face the full force of the Australian law.”

The Albanese government helped organise the repatriation of four Australian women and their 13 children to Sydney in October 2022, prompting a minor backlash from local communities.

In an interview with local media, the camp governor explained what had happened after that.

“Previously there were also deportations of some families,” Ibrahim said according to the translation provided by Kurdish media. “The deportation was carried out through coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, through which they were transferred to their respective countries.

“The Australian Government later stated that it was facing certain policy-related issues and was therefore unable to repatriate additional families.”

Ibrahim told this masthead the promised departure to the Syrian capital, Damascus, then to Australia, had been paused for an unspecified period of time. The official insisted, “It’s not cancelled, it’s postponed”.

It’s unclear what caused the delay, but local sources say there had been a disagreement between the Syrian government in Damascus, the Kurdish administration that runs the camp, and the Australian families who are organising the repatriation.

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