IS women and children leave Syria, two left behind

Nineteen Australian women and children linked to Islamic State flew out of Syria late on Monday night, bound for Australia, leaving two of their number behind.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed that seven women and 12 children embarked in Damascus and were on a flight home. The number includes one young woman who just turned 18 and is the daughter of one of the so-called IS brides.

Government sources have confirmed the Australian temporary exclusion order imposed by the Albanese government forced one woman and her child to stay behind in Damascus.

Four women are expected to land in Sydney on Tuesday, along with their six children.

Two more women, accompanied by seven children, are expected in Melbourne.

The last time a group of so-called IS brides arrived in Australia earlier this month, three out of four were arrested, and there were chaotic scenes at Melbourne Airport.

At least some of the women in the latest group are expected to face criminal charges, but neither the government nor the Australian Federal Police has spelled out what those might be, nor whether there would be arrests at the airport. Some women who are under criminal investigation might not face immediate arrest.

Burke imposed the temporary exclusion order on one of the women in February.

Family members had hoped that the woman might be able to return from Damascus and challenge the exclusion order regime.

However, in the first test of Australia’s ability to temporarily keep an Australian citizen out of the country because of fears of a terror attack, the woman was left behind in Syria.

The order extends for two years unless a court strikes it down or the minister issues a return permit.

The woman had an option to send her child, who has a serious medical condition, with the other mothers. The child is not subject to the order. The mother elected not to.

The interim Syrian government in Damascus has said it would look after the pair. The Australian government will not provide consular assistance.

In a statement, Burke reiterated that the Australian government “has not and will not provide any assistance to this group”.

“Our world-class law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them,” he said.

Sources close to the return operation but who are not authorised to speak publicly, said two people from Australia, one man and one woman, had travelled to Syria last week to accompany the women and children home.

The return means that, apart from the excluded woman and her child, all the Australian so-called IS brides are now out of Syria for the first time since the end of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in March 2019.

The women travelled – some willingly and others claiming to have been forced by husbands or family members – to live under the warlike Islamic fundamentalist movement from when it gained territory in 2014.

Since IS’s defeat, they have lived in tents in a variety of camps in north-eastern Syria. Coalition and Labor governments have both organised repatriations in small groups, but the Albanese government has refused to bring anybody home since 2022.

It issued this cohort one-use-only passports, after DNA testing in 2022, to ensure the children are indeed citizens by descent. But the government has withheld other assistance, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying he has “nothing but contempt” for the cohort.

The government’s refusal has earned the condemnation of child advocates, including Save the Children and Human Rights Watch, and has forced the women and their supporters to make their own arrangements to return.

An earlier return on May 7 marked the first time globally the Syrian government has allowed IS-linked women and children to travel without the direct involvement of a national government.

The move could set a precedent for family advocate groups from other Western countries to follow.

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