In brief
- Three of the returning women were arrested on Thursday evening.
- Others within the group are likely to undergo monitoring and deradicalisation programs.
Three of the four women who travelled from Syria with their nine children and grandchildren were arrested on Thursday night after disembarking in Sydney and Melbourne.
Those detained are expected to face charges in the coming hours, police said, while the rest of the cohort will remain under the scrutiny of authorities — even as they are allowed back into their communities.
The families, who arrived in Australia after travelling from the Qatari capital of Doha, were met by a large police presence at both international airports.
Also gathered at the airports were families and supporters of the women, some of whom have been detained in the al-Roj refugee camp in northern Syria since approximately 2019.
Three women charged
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has emphasised that the government has provided no assistance to citizens attempting to return from Syria.
He has said previously that if any individuals do "find their own way to return" they will be met with "the full force of the law."
Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Stephen Nutt announced on Thursday night that one of the women will be charged with crimes against humanity, enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading.
Another woman is expected to be charged with crimes against humanity, enslavement and using a slave.
Each of the offences carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.
The third woman is expected to be charged with entering or remaining in a declared area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
'No immediate concern'
ASIO's director general Mike Burgess has said the remaining group will be the subject of continuing intelligence operations and that their backgrounds have already been assessed.
"I'm not concerned immediately by their return, but they will get our attention," the spy agency chief said on Wednesday. "Our government understands our assessed risk."
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett added on Wednesday that some of those who are not charged will "face continued investigations."
"Children who return to the cohort will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support, and countering violent extremist programs," she said.
Reintegrating the children a priority
Mat Tinkler, CEO of Save the Children Australia, told SBS News the priority now should be on reintegrating the children and ensuring they do not face further trauma.
"These kids have been through hell," he told SBS World News on Thursday. "For some of those kids, their entire existence has been inside that camp with no access to normal health care, education, food, or even trees or parks."
Tinkler said that the initial focus should be on supporting the children's physical and mental health and that they will need medical and dental services to reintegrate properly.
"They may also need more targeted deradicalisation and reintegration programs," he added.
"They've been applied to children from these camps here and in other countries around the world very successfully in the past, and we should be confident that that can happen here as well."
His comments chime with those of NSW Premier Chris Minns, who said on Thursday that the country has an "obligation" to make sure the children are safe.
"In my view, we've got an obligation to make sure that they're safe, and we've got to make sure we've got an obligation to make sure that there's no radicalisation there," he said.
"That's going to be a tricky operation. We have experienced people who are responsible for that in NSW Police, as well as [the Department of Communities and Justice], and I think the public would expect that — maybe not every member of the public, but I would expect it."
Opposition to their arrival
This is not the first time that IS-linked Australians have been returned to the country. The Australian government has previously carried out two repatriation missions since the group was defeated in 2019.
The Morrison government brought back eight orphaned children in June of 2019, while the Albanese government repatriated four women and children in October 2022.
However, the circumstances surrounding the return of this latest group have changed, with the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, saying on Thursday that more should have been done to prevent their arrival.
"These people left Australia to support a death cult," he said. "I've said this from the start, the government should be doing everything it can to prevent them from coming back to the country, and they haven't."
His sentiment was shared by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who on Thursday called for the citizenship of those Australians who had left the country to be "stripped".
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie cast doubt on the success of deradicalisation programs on Thursday, saying that she does not believe they have a high chance of working in this instance.
However, Gamel Kheir, Lebanese Muslim Association secretary, told SBS News that the politics should not cloud the rule of law.
"If we can rehabilitate murderers who have willingly committed murder, why can we not rehabilitate children who had zero say with the position they're in?" he said.
"This is a moral question that we need to all answer, but somehow it's clouded behind the headscarf."
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