Some of the Australian women linked to Islamic State fighters may face arrest and possible criminal charges on their return from Syria this week, with the government and federal police promising a hardline response when the group touches down.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed that the government was aware that four Australian women and nine of their children had begun the journey home, after more than a decade of planning by a joint Asio and Australian federal police counter-terrorism taskforce.
Their arrivals, via flights from Doha, are expected on Thursday.
The government insists it has provided no assistance to the group, who were among a larger group of 34 Australian women and their children who had been stuck in al-Roj camp in northern Syria for several years, since the territorial collapse of Islamic State.
Australian citizens cannot legally be prevented from returning to the country unless a formal exclusion order is in place. Burke has issued a single order to prevent one woman in Syria from returning, based on Asio advice about a national security risk.
None of the returning group are affected by such an order.
The cohort returning to Australia include children who were born in detention camps after the fall of Islamic State, a woman previously married to a notorious recruiter for the terror group, and others who insist they only travelled to the Middle East to perform aid work.
Eleven of them are members of the same family: Kawsar Abbas, her two adult daughters Zeinab and Zahra, and eight other children and grandchildren. They are expected to settle in Melbourne.
The other two are Janai Safar and her child, who are expected to settle in Sydney.
Abbas’ husband, Mohammad Ahmad, travelled to Syria in 2012, where he performed aid work with a registered charity, Global Humanitarian Aid Australia. He flitted between Turkey and Syria during this time.
But he is suspected by the AFP of using the charity to support Islamic State. He denied supporting the terror group in a 2019 interview with the ABC from a prison in Syria.
In another interview with the ABC in 2023, he also denied allegations made by Yazidi women that he abused them when they were kept as slaves in the so-called caliphate.
Abbas travelled to Turkey with her extended family in 2014, but Ahmad claimed the family was trapped in Syria later that year after heading to the country to attend a wedding.
Seven members of their extended family, including two sons and four sons-in-law, died during fighting in Syria and Iraq.
The Abbas family did not respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday morning the government was alerted to the planned departure of a group of 13 who left al-Roj and travelled to Damascus last month. They all hold Australian passports.
“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,” Burke said.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the group would not receive any assistance.
The AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said some of the adults in the group faced arrest and possible charges when they arrived in Australia, while the children would be required to take part in an anti-extremist program. They would also receive psychological support.
She would not disclose how many of the adults faced arrest, due to operational considerations by police.
Behind-the-scenes planning for the group’s return has been under way for 10 years, including a community liaison team working with affected local communities.
“Operational planning for the return of these individuals started in 2015,” Barrett said. “The joint counter-terrorism teams … include some of the most experienced national security investigators and analysts in this country.”
Asio’s director general, Mike Burgess, said advice about the group had been provided to policing agencies. “The government understands our assessed risk,” he said.
“It’s up to them what they do when they get here. If they start to exhibit signs of concern, we and the police, through the joint counter-terrorism teams, will take action.
“I’m not concerned immediately by their return but they’ll get our attention, as you expect.”
Despite Burgess’s comments, the shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, claimed the government had “actively failed to safeguard” Australians from a security risk.
“If indeed any members of this cohort are set to be arrested, how is it in Australia’s national interest to allow them to return,” he said. “How will Labor protect Australians from these terrorist affiliates and at what cost?”
The group began their second attempt to travel home to Australia last month after a much larger cohort was turned back by Syrian authoritiesin February. Syrian authorities were taking the group to Damascus, amid international pressure for countries to take back foreign fighters stuck in the camp.
The US has pushed countries including Australia to repatriate citizens who had travelled to the Middle East to join the IS caliphate but the issue has dogged successive governments.
Under Albanese, Labor had supported bringing the families home as recently as 2022 but the politics surrounding the return of the group has dramatically shifted since the December shootings at Bondi beach.
Albanese has refused to help in any way, saying the adults had “made their bed” and should suffer the consequences of their actions.
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