A group of Australian women and children linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group are expected to soon arrive in Australia, with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirming some will be arrested when they touch down.
The Australian government has confirmed 13 members of the Australian group "have made plans to travel to Australia".
SBS News understand the group is expected to arrive on Thursday night.
The cohort is part of a larger group of 34 women and children who have been held at the al-Roj detention camp in northern Syria since 2019, when the IS group collapsed.
"The Government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group, which consists of four women and nine children," a government spokesperson said.
"These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation."
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) chief Mike Burgess said the group's return raised no immediate concern and there would be no change to the national terrorism threat level.
The group left the al-Roj refugee camp by bus in late April, after Syrian interior forces picked them and took them to Syria's capital of Damascus.
The government has long said that anyone in the group who is alleged to have committed a crime will be charged on arrival in Australia.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, AFP commissioner Krissy Barrret refused to confirm how many people will be arrested.
"Some individuals will be arrested and charged, some will face continued investigations when they arrive in Australia," she said.
"And children who return in the cohort will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support and countering violent extremism programs."
Barrett said the cohort has been monitored since 2015, with national security investigators and analysts collecting information for over a decade about potential offences committed in Syria.
She said these included terrorism offences such as "entering or remaining in declared areas and crimes against humanity offences, such as engaging in slave trading".
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said there are "very serious limits" on preventing a citizen from returning to their home country, except for temporary exclusion orders (TEO).
A TEO is a temporary ban on an individual re-entering the country based on national security grounds, with Burke reiterating he promptly acted on such advice in February, when he issued one ban on a woman in the broader cohort.
Members of this group's extended family have been trying to help them in returning to Australia, with a failed attempt in February.
They have consistently said the women will comply with any legal directions and Australian law once they touch down.
The government has faced intense scrutiny over the group, who are Australian citizens, with questions raised about the level of consular assistance being provided.
Burke said the government has maintained a hard line to "do nothing to assist".
"The government's complete lack of support for these individuals is a direct reflection of the decisions," he said on Wednesday.
"The Australian Government is not repatriating people from Syria," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement to SBS News.
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