Albanese Says Australia Won’t Repatriate 34 ‘ISIS Brides’ and Children From Syria

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out repatriating a group of 34 Australian women and children seeking to return from Syria, warning they will face criminal charges if they come back.

“My mother would have said, ‘If you make your bed, you’ll own it.’ These are people who went overseas supporting Islamic State, and went there to provide support for people who basically want a caliphate,” Albanese told ABC TV on Feb. 17.

The comments came after the group attempted to leave the Al Roj camp on Feb. 16 and travel to Damascus, where they planned to fly to Australia.

Their departure was blocked and they were sent back to the camp due to an administrative problem, a Syrian official told Reuters.

The group is believed to include the partners, widows and children of ISIS fighters.

Albanese said it was unfortunate children were involved but said the government would not facilitate their return.

“There are obligations that Australian officials have, but we want to make it clear as well to the people involved, that if there are any breaches of the law, then they will face the full force of the Australian law,” he said.

Women and children linked to the terrorist group ISIS have been held in Syrian camps and prisons since 2019, often for years without charge. Some women have said they were pressured or coerced into leaving Australia.

Previously, the Labor government held an ambiguous stance regarding the repatriation of ISIS brides and their children. However, in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, it has adopted a firmer position.

“The Australian government is not and will not repatriate people from Syria. Our security agencies have been monitoring—and continue to monitor—the situation in Syria to ensure they are prepared for any Australians seeking to return to Australia,” a Home Affairs spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

“The safety of Australians and the protection of Australia’s national interests remain the overriding priority.”

Liberals Propose Temporary Exclusion Orders

Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam said the government should consider using temporary exclusion orders to prevent the group from returning to Australia.

“The ISIS brides cohort are a group who have followed or have been forced to relocate to Syria alongside their ISIS fighter husbands,” he said in a statement.

“These are people who have been part of a group that want to attack our way of life and are a very serious risk to our society.”

Duniam’s comment was echoed by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, who said the government had mechanisms available to manage the risk.

“They can make security assessment; they can impose temporary exclusion orders … we need to ensure these adults do not pose a threat to Australia,” she told ABC Radio.

When asked about using these powers, a spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was continuing to assess whether the legal threshold had been met.

“We are constantly receiving advice from our agencies about whether the threshold for Temporary Exclusion Orders has been met. We will always act in accordance with advice from our law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

Temporary exclusion orders, introduced in 2019, give the home affairs minister power to block Australians aged 14 and over from returning for up to two years if they pose a security risk.

Affected individuals will then need to apply for a return permit for their re-entry to Australia. However, they will be subjected to strict conditions, such as travel arrangements and monitoring by authorities.

UN Warns Against Ban

UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Saul said Australia must take responsibility for its own nationals rather than leaving them in temporary camps overseas.

“It’s not the job of Syria to indefinitely host Australians who Australia won’t let come home,” he said in comments obtained by AAP.

Saul also noted that leaving ISIS brides and their children in Syria could create further risks, while bringing them back would allow Australian authorities to apply the legal system, including prosecution and control orders, where appropriate.

“If you genuinely believe individuals are a security risk, then Australia should deal with that. It should prosecute them. It should apply control orders to them,” he said.

“If people are terrorists, it shouldn’t just let them loose on the world, in Syria or Iraq or other countries, to pose threats there.

“These are Australians. Australia created this problem. Australia needs to deal with it.”

AAP contributed to this article.