Another cohort of “ISIS brides” and their children is expected to make their way back to Australia in the coming week.
The women and their children have been living in northeast Syria’s al-Roj internment camp after leaving Australia to join ISIS’s campaign to establish a self-declared caliphate, which collapsed in 2019.
Shadow home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam said the new cohort could be considered more dangerous than the most recent returned group, which comprised four ISIS-linked women and nine children.
The group arrived in Melbourne and Sydney on May 7, with three of the four women charged by police.
Janai Safar was charged with entering a declared conflict zone and being a member of a terrorist organisation, while Kawsar Abbas and Zeinab Ahmad were charged with crimes against humanity, including enslavement and slave-trading offences relating to the alleged captivity of a Yazidi woman in Syria.
“It has been put to me by some who know a little more about this cohort than the government are letting on, that the remaining individuals are of probably greater risk to our safety and our security than those who have returned already,” Dunham told Sky News Australia on May 20.
“Hence why we’ve seen them staggered this way.”
At least six ISIS-linked Australian women, along with their children and grandchildren, still remain in the Syrian camp, with reports suggesting they could return to Australia as early as May 26.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about the reported return of the new cohort during his visit to Perth. He did not confirm the reports, but said his government would not facilitate their return.
“We are not providing any assistance, and I note that on the last journey back … we weren’t providing any assistance and won’t,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“If there have been any breaches of Australian law, they will face the full force of the law, which is what happened to people when they arrived back a couple of weeks ago.”
