Australia was a ‘deciding factor’ in the latest attempt by a group of 13 ISIS brides and their children seeking to return home, according to Syrian authorities.
On Thursday, ISIS-linked women are due to arrive at Sydney Airport on flight QR908. A larger contingent is then scheduled to land in Melbourne on flight QR904.
The group is made up of four Australian women – grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 54, her two daughters Zahra Ahmad, 33, and former nursing student Zeinab Ahmed, 31, Janai Safar – and their nine children.
‘The Australian government had the ultimate authority,’ a Syrian government official told ABC News on Wednesday night.
‘The ball was entirely in the court of the Australians.’
The Syrian official said they waited for the Australian government to put procedures in place before the group was allowed to leave Damascus.
The women and children had spent two weeks in Syria’s capital after leaving the Al Roj refugee camp in the north, where they had lived for seven years.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for comment.
Australia was a ‘deciding factor’ in the latest attempt by a group of ISIS brides and their children seeking to return home, according to Syrian authorities (file image)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government have continued to insist that they have not supported the group in their return to Australia.
‘The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,’ Albanese said on Wednesday.
‘These are people who have made what is a horrific choice, to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an extraordinary situation.
‘Any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law and that will occur.’
As of Thursday morning, the women have boarded their connecting flight in Doha and spoken about their hope for life in Australia.
‘We just want our children to be safe. It was like hell (in Syria) for them,’ one told ABC News.
Another said: ‘One of the boys has an Australian accent, even though he’s never been to Australia.’
Officers from the Australian Federal Police are expected to take some of the women into custody upon their arrival at the airport.
‘ISIS brides’ is a reference to women recruited by the Islamic State and moved to Iraq or Syria to marry fighters and raise their children
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government have continued to insist that they have not supported the group in their return to Australia
The children who return will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support, and countering violent extremism programs, the force said.
When asked by the Daily Mail about the cost of monitoring these individuals, Albanese refused to comment, repeating that authorities are not providing assistance.
He also failed to provide a response when asked if his government expects other Australian families to follow the group now that refugee camps are being closed in Syria.
‘ISIS brides’ is a reference to women recruited by the Islamic State and moved to Iraq or Syria to marry fighters and raise their children.
Many of the women have spoken about being tricked into living in Syria, with some experts suggesting recruiters paint a utopian view of life with the terrorist group.
But AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said investigators will have looked at ‘someone’s state of mind, their intent, and their awareness and understanding of the situation they were in’ before their arrest.
‘That most definitely forms part of the extensive investigations that we have done and in fact goes to us being able to prove or make the allegations and place those charges,’ she told reporters on Wednesday.
The group of 13 is the third contingent of families linked to ISIS who have returned to Australia.
Eight orphaned children came back to Australia under Scott Morrison’s government in 2019.
Four women and 13 children were then allowed into the country by the Albanese government three years later.
