Albanese rules out help as second ‘ISIS bride’ group returns
A second group of women with ties to Islamic State could soon return to Australia, as the prime minister says further arrests could be made on their arrival.
Source: Australian Federal Police
A second group of so-called ISIS brides — believed to number seven women and 14 children — has reportedly left a Syrian camp and will be bound for Australia.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted no government help will be provided to them.
The women, along with their children and grandchildren, have been living in a camp for former Islamic State fighters and their families.
The ABC reported that the group had left the camp in a bus on Thursday afternoon (local time).
Logistics were being negotiated between Kurdish and Syrian officials for the 10-hour drive from the Al Roj refugee camp to Damascus, multiple media outlets, including the ABC, reported.
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The group is then likely to board flights to Australia.
Australian Border Force arrested three of the women when they arrived in Australia.
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Albanese told ABC radio on Wednesday that the federal government would provide no help to another group of so-called ISIS brides.
“There wasn’t a government person on the plane [with the previous cohort], because we weren’t providing any assistance, and won’t,” he said.
“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 just a couple of weeks ago.
“The US State Department has been very keen on people leaving those camps.”
Opposition immigration spokesman Jonno Duniam told Sky News he believed the government hadn’t done enough to stop the women returning.
“They are the government. They can do something about it. I don’t buy the story that they’re running, that they can’t stop them from coming back. They can and they should,” he said.
“The fact that there was a brief of evidence available to authorities to arrest these people on arrival, yet it wasn’t enough to apply a temporary travel ban or revoke a travel document like a passport, beggars belief.”
The women are leaving at the same time as Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, are losing large areas of their territory to Syrian state forces.
Al Roj, in the north-east tip of Syria, is one of the only areas it still holds.
A group of 34 women and children tried to leave in February but was turned around.
-with AAP
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