Australia today (Tuesday) announced it would refuse to return home 34 women and children suspected of having links to the Syrian terrorist group ISIS.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that the Australian government will not repatriate a group of 34 women and children from Syria with suspected links to ISIS.
Mr Albanese declined to comment on reports that the women and children held Australian passports that the state had refused, telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne: “We are not providing any support and we have no intention of bringing these people back into the country.”
He added: “Frankly, we feel absolutely no sympathy for those who traveled abroad to take part in attempts to establish a caliphate aimed at undermining and destroying our way of life. As my mother would say, he who makes the bed sleeps in it.”
Mr Albanese said international child welfare agency Save the Children had failed to prove in Australian courts that the Australian government was responsible for repatriating people from Syrian camps.
Mr Albanese warned that any attempt to reach Australia without government assistance could lead to legal prosecution.
Authorities have confirmed that 11 families of women and children were scheduled to travel to Australia from Damascus, but Syrian authorities yesterday sent them back to Rozi camp in northeastern Syria, citing procedural issues.
Since the fall of ISIS in 2019, Australia has repatriated two groups from camps in Syria with government support, while other Australians have returned without government support.
The Federal Court ruled in the government’s favor in 2024, and Save the Children’s Australian executive director Matt Tinkler said the government had a “moral, if not legal, obligation to return the families.”
