Australia will not repatriate 34 women and children from Syria over their alleged ties to the Daesh terrorist 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 the Syrian authorities Monday turned them back to the 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 Daesh 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.
