Government ‘unaware’ of booked flights for ISIS brides returning home

Nine.com.au understands the government is not aware of group booking tickets or making plans to return home at this stage.

Social Affairs Minister Tanya Plibersek reiterated that statement to the ABC this morning.

“I can tell you that they will face the same consequences as their first group: if there are crimes they are accused of, they will be taken into custody and dealt with the full force of the law,” she said.

“The government should do everything in its power to prevent these people from coming because they have turned their backs on our country to support a terrorist organization,” he told reporters today.

‘One who has committed extraordinary atrocities, including against Australians.’

Last month, four women and nine children boarded flights from Damascus to Sydney and Melbourne.

Three of the women – 53-year-old Kawsar Ahmad, her 31-year-old daughter Zeinab Ahmad and 32-year-old Janai Safar – were arrested upon arrival and later charged.

The mother and daughter were charged with slavery-related crimes, while Safar was charged with joining a terrorist organization and traveling to a declared conflict zone.

All three currently remain in custody pending future court hearings.

They are all part of the wider group of 34 Australians – 11 women and 23 children – who have spent the past seven years in the camp because of their alleged links to Islamic State fighters.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has only been able to legally ban one of the women from returning to Australia.

It is expected that she will remain behind in Syria. Her children are likely to join the second group when they return to Australia.

A group of Australians traveled to Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2019 to join or support ISIS.

The federal government has been planning for their return since 2013.

A group of children of a convicted ISIS terrorist were repatriated to Australia under the Morrison government in 2019, and a second group of women and children were repatriated three years later under the Albanian government.

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