Scott Morrison has pushed back against pleas for help from an Australian woman trapped with her two young children in a refugee camp for Islamic State families.
The prime minister declared he would not put any Australians at risk by helping home-grown extremists wanting to come home from the Middle East.
Mr Morrison said it was a "great tragedy" Islamic State sympathisers had dragged their children into war zones.
"They have placed their children in this horrendous position," he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"They have to take responsibility for those decisions to join up with terrorists who are fighting Australia."
The woman who refuses to confirm her identity, but is believed to be 24-year-old Zehra Duman,- is being held at a refugee camp in north-east Syria and in an interview with ABC said she wants to come home because her baby is sick.
"Both of my kids are sick. [My daughter is] very malnourished, she's … very skinny," she said.
"I have no money, I'm not allowed to have money, they don't give us food here and they don't let us contact our families.
"My daughter needs milk and I don't have money to buy her milk. I don't know what to do now.
"I understand the anger that they have towards a lot of us here, but the kids don't need to suffer.
"You know my kids have a right at least to be treated like normal kids."
"I think the children are innocent victims in the terrorist acts of their parents," Mr Morrison said.
"If you're coming home, you're coming home to face the full force of the law. The great tragedy is how children get caught up in the crimes against Australia of their parents."
