Up to 34 ISIS brides and their children left a camp in Syria to travel Australia after reportedly being given new Australian passports, but were turned back shortly afterwards.
The group left the Al-Roj camp in the country’s northeast on Monday morning local time for the capital Damascus, where Syrian media reported 11 families with 24 people in total were travelling before going on to Beirut, and then Australia.
It was later confirmed there were 34 people in the group, and ABC News was told the families were issued Australian passports, although this is yet to be confirmed by the Australian government.
The group’s convoy was then turned back about 50km into the trip, and a camp official told The Age the journey was “not cancelled”, but “postponed for a period of time”, delaying the departure by hours or even days.
The federal government said in a statement it was not assisting the families, and warned members of the group they faced prosecution on arrival if they had committed crimes.
“The Australian government is not and will not repatriate people from Syria,” it said.
“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.
“People in this cohort need to know that if they have committed a crime and if they return to Australia they will be met with the full force of the law.
“The safety of Australians and the protection of Australia’s national interests remain the overriding priority.”
A smaller group of six woman and children returned to Australia in September last year after smuggling themselves out of Syria and into Lebanon, where they were detained by authorities before being issued Australian passports, sparking criticism of the Labor government.
That group was the third to be returned to Australia since the fall of the ISIS Caliphate in 2019, with the children of ISIS terrorist Khaled Sharrouf evacuated out of the Al Hol camp that year, and four women and their 13 children brought back in 2022.
One of the 2022 cohort, Mariam Raad, was spared a conviction in June 2024 after being charged for entering Syria with her ISIS fighter husband.
ISIS is still active in Syria and Iraq, with thousands of fighters still waging war in the region.
Header image: The group in Syria (supplied).
