ISIL-linked women, children return to Australia from Syria camp
A woman fastens a seatbelt for a child in a car at Melbourne's international airport, in Melbourne, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, after two planes carrying 19 Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State group landed in Melbourne and Sydney. (Christopher Hopkins/AAP Image via AP)
Two planes carrying 19 Australian women and children linked to the ISIL terrorist organization landed in Melbourne and Sydney on May 26, despite Australia’s government warning that the returnees could face charges.The government earlier confirmed seven women and 12 children were heading home on Qatar Airways flights, less than three weeks after a group of 13 people in similar situations returned to Australia’s two largest cities.Two women with seven children flew to Melbourne. Four women with six children landed about an hour later in Sydney, news media reported.Three of the four women on the earlier flights were charged with slavery and terrorism offenses and remain behind bars.Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said anyone among the 19 on their way to Australia who has committed crimes “can expect to face the full force of the law.”“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Burke said in a statement. “These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organization and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he added.Australian 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, Burke said.“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he said.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier told the parliament: “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy for ISIS,” referring to ISIL by another acronym.After the departure of the latest group, at least two Australians remain in Roj camp, a location in northeast Syria near the Iraq border where people linked to ISIL have been held since ISIL forces in the Middle East were defeated in 2019.A mother who was prevented from returning to Australia in February by a temporary exclusion order did not travel with the group.The woman, who is aged around 29, had remained at Roj with her daughter who had been disabled by shrapnel wounds, the Australian media reported.She left her Sydney home at the age of 18 in 2015 to marry an ISIL fighter in Syria, the newspaper reported.Their family has engaged a Sydney lawyer to challenge the order, which would bar the mother from Australia until February 2028.Exclusion orders were created by laws introduced in 2019 to prevent defeated ISIL fighters from returning to Australia for up to two years.The last Australian cohort returned from Syria on May 7, similarly without government help.
