The Australian government will not repatriate from Syria a group of 34 women and children with alleged ties to the Islamic State group, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.
The women and children from 11 families were supposed to fly from the Syrian capital Damascus to Australia but Syrian authorities on Monday turned them back to Roj camp in northeast Syria because of procedural problems, officials said.
Only two groups of Australians have been repatriated with government help from Syrian camps since the fall of the Islamic State group in 2019. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.
Albanese would not comment on a report that the latest women and children had Australian passports.
“We’re providing absolutely no support and we are not repatriating people,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in Melbourne.
“We have no sympathy, frankly, for people who traveled overseas in order to participate in what was an attempt to establish a caliphate to undermine, destroy, our way of life. And so, as my mother would say, ‘You make your bed, you lie in it,’” Albanese added.
Albanese noted that the child welfare-focused international charity Save the Children had failed to establish in Australia’s courts that the Australian government had a responsibility to repatriate citizens from Syrian camps.
After the federal court ruled in the government's favor in 2024, Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler argued the government had a moral, if not legal, obligation to repatriate families.
Albanese said if the latest group made their way to Australia without government help, they could be charged.
It was an offense under Australian law to travel to the former Islamic State stronghold of al-Raqqa province without a legitimate reason from 2014 to 2017. The maximum penalty was 10 years in prison.
“It’s unfortunate that children are impacted by this as well, but we are not providing any support. And if anyone does manage to find their way back to Australia, then they’ll face the full force of the law, if any laws have been broken,” Albanese added.
The last group of Australians to be repatriated from Syrian camps arrived in Sydney in October 2022.
They were four mothers, former partners of Islamic State supporters, and 13 children.
Australian officials had assessed the group as the most vulnerable among 60 Australian women and children held in Roj camp, the government said at the time.
Eight offspring of two slain Australian Islamic State fighters were repatriated from Syria in 2019 by the conservative government that preceded Albanese’s center-left Labor Party administration.
The issue of Islamic State supporters resurfaced in Australia after the killings of 15 people at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. The attackers were allegedly inspired by IS.
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16 Comments
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stick_out_nail
Australia is justified in its position. These are not tourists stranded by bad weather; they are individuals who traveled there to participate in the enslavement of groups like Yazidis or Kurds. Whether they were born in Australia or later naturalized should not change the consequences. They made their choices, and those choices should carry serious repercussions—both as accountability for their actions and as a clear warning to others who might consider following the same path.
Mr Kipling
23 countries have a constitutional reference to laws not contradicting Islamic principles so I'm sure they can find somewhere more suitable to their chosen lifestyle.
falseflagsteve
Australia has just had an awful mass shooting by people of a similar mindset, they would be insane to allow more into the country.
Sanjinosebleed
There’ll be no tears shed there! They chose to go they can suffer the consequences of their very foolish actions!
ThePunisher
Good.
These women chose to move to an islamic "caliphate" under ISIS. They rejected Australia and Western values. They and the children would be likely to be completely dependent on welfare should they manage to return. Hopefully, they never do.
K3PO
Makes sense. They can help rebuild Syria, the country their husbands help destroy.
V Campbell
Good for Australia. It is a wise, wise decision. Japan, please take note.
Cochise
One would imagine they would hardly feel at home in Australia. More logical that they stay in the Middle East. Pakistan or Afghanistan is probably their idea of heaven.
browny1
A pertinent point in all of this are the children.
All I assume are of Australian nationality and possess Aust passports.
They have committed no crimes. Their parents have/ may have.
Denying the children assistance and access to Australia may well be more than a denial of rights - probably straight out illegal.
I know separation of children from mothers is wrought with difficulty, but I’m assuming the rights of the children usurp that.
But even with no separation - for the sake of the children - surely a move back to Aust could be arranged and the mothers face the consequences including long term monitoring etc.
Why should the Big Mistakes of parents condemn innocent children to an ongoing hell of an existence?
falseflagsteve
Browny1
Alreafy indoctrinated no doubt. Their culture is incompatible with a Western one that has different values.
HopeSpringsEternal
Too risky, Australia has common sense, but thankfully Syria is stabilizing now, as Trump's busy bombing what little now remains of ISIS and the Gaza Middle East Peace Accords are taking hold, Turkey's playing a far larger role etc. Great progress in the Middle East thanks to Trump, just a year ago it was pure death and chaos.
Mr Kipling
Because sometimes there ARE consequences. They are a risk and expense that Australia does not need.
Ricky Kaminski13
Albo is just being Albo and trying to shape shift to match the sentiments of a large majority of the Aussie public regarding the repatriation of the Isis brides, after there was issue to a similar group that managed to do so last year where a group of Australian women and children who had gone to Syria as partners or relatives of Islamic State fighters arrived back in Australia after smuggling themselves out of camps in Syria. They travelled to Lebanon, were issued Australian passports by Australian agencies (after security/DNA checks), and then flew to Australia.
The labor governments denied involvement and there was some pretty intense moments as our foreign Minister Penny Wong was being defensive and opaque during questioning from the opposition party.
As you can imagine the left will try and utilize the ‘children factor’ in an attempt to pull at the heart strings of the nation and try and push compassion for the Isis kids, but Albo knows it would be political suicide to play that game right now, especially as things are still hot after Bondi and he is skating on very thin ice.
Id say their chances of ever making it down under are pretty slim. There will be a lot of yelling and screaming but ultimately it’ll be Albos call, and he will choose his own skin over theirs. Sorry kids, you’ll have to blame your parents once you are old enough to process.
Ricky Kaminski13
Oops sorry 2022 not 2025 for the last group to repatriate. Sumimasen.
proxy
They are complicit in the crimes against humanity committed by ISIS. The families of the people murdered, raped and tortured by ISIS deserve justice. None of these woman are fit to be mothers, they are fit to rot in prison for the rest of their lives.
stick_out_nail
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe ISIS deserves any sympathy. Their ideology and actions are deeply wrong. However, it’s also misguided to assume that Western values are automatically superior. The war in Gaza has demonstrated that West can behave in ways that are just as morally questionable as the groups they criticize.
That’s part of why we’re discussing this on an Asian news platform rather than a Western one. I hope Japan continues to chart its own independent course. Although I’m generally skeptical of nationalism, perhaps leaders like Takaichi could help ensure Japan does not simply follow Western powers uncritically.
At the end of the day, I care deeply about Japan, even if I’m often disappointed and critical of it. Precisely because of that, I believe it’s important for Japan to safeguard its interests and cultural identity rather than adopt Western models that only exploit other nations as we have witnessed since centuries.