Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed reports the Australians in Syria with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group are carrying Australian passports, after revealing one woman had been temporarily banned from returning.
He said the woman was one of 34 Australians — 11 women and 23 children — who had been planning to fly on Monday from Damascus to Australia before they were turned back due to unspecified procedural problems.
Burke said work to issue the temporary exclusion order had begun on Monday in response to reports the cohort – widely referred to as "ISIS brides" – had left the Roj detention camp to return to Australia.
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"Effectively, because the clock starts ticking on these sorts of exclusion orders, the work gets done by the department in advance," he told ABC's 7.30 last night.
"But once reports start to come that somebody might be moving, that's the time that you initiate those sorts of orders."
Burke, who can use temporary exclusion orders to prevent high-risk citizens from returning to Australia for up to two years, said the order wasn't made earlier because it could have lapsed.
The banned woman was an immigrant who left Australia for Syria sometime between 2013 and 2015, Burke said.
He didn't comment on whether she had children but generally blamed the parents for the predicaments of their offspring stranded in Syria.
"These are horrific situations that have been brought on those children by actions of their parents," he told ABC's 7.30 last night.
"They are terrible situations. But they have been brought on entirely by horrific decisions that their parents made."
The laws were introduced in 2019 to prevent defeated Islamic State fighters from returning to Australia. There are no public reports of an order being issued before.
Burke said security agencies had not advised that any of the other Australians in the group warranted an exclusion order and they couldn't be made against children younger than 14.
Opposition home affairs spokesperson Senator Jonno Duniam implied he would like to see all the women banned.
"If the minister is claiming that only one of the 34 strong ISIS bride cohort is deemed risky enough to warrant a temporary exclusion order, then this raises more questions than answers," he said yesterday.
These ISIS Brides all travelled to the same 'declared area' for the same reason of supporting the same listed terrorist organisation – how can only one member of this group be deemed a risk and the rest somehow okay?"
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Burke confirms Australian passports
Pressed by host Sarah Ferguson, he obliquely confirmed reports that the 34 citizens were carrying Australian passports, saying "anyone who's a citizen is able to apply for a passport and receive a passport".
Asked if he knew whether they had the documents he said: "Yeah I do and I think I'm giving the very practical answer that if somebody applies, if anyone applies for a passport as a citizen, they are issued with a passport."
"In the same way, in the same way that public servants, if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card," he said.
When Ferguson said it was "a long way of saying yes" he said "I've given the answer with the words I wanted to".
He smiled when Feruson said "the answer is yes".
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Confusing messages at cramped camp
At the Roj camp, tucked in Syria's north-eastern corner near the border with Iraq, the Australian women refused to speak to The Associated Press yesterday.
One of the women, Zeinab Ahmad, said they had been advised by an attorney not to talk to journalists.
A security official at the camp, Chavrê Rojava, said that family members of the detainees – who she said were Australians of Lebanese origin – had travelled to Syria to arrange their return. They brought temporary passports that had been issued for the would-be returnees, Rojava said.
"We have no contact with the Australian government regarding this matter, as we are not part of the process," she said.
"We have left it to the families to resolve."
Rojava said that after the group had departed the camp to travel to Damascus, they were contacted by a Syrian government official and warned to turn back. The families were "very disappointed" upon returning to the camp, she said.
"We recently requested that all countries and families come and take back their citizens," Rojava said.
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PM confirms government won't help
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday reiterated his position from Tuesday that his government would not help repatriate the latest group.
"These are people who chose to go overseas to align themselves with an ideology which is the caliphate, which is a brutal, reactionary ideology and that seeks to undermine and destroy our way of life," Albanese told reporters.
He was referring to the militants' capture of wide swathes of land more than a decade ago that stretched across Syria and Iraq, territory where IS established its so-called caliphate. Jihadis from foreign countries travelled to Syria at the time to join the IS. Over the years, they had families and raised children there.
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"We are doing nothing to repatriate or to assist these people. I think it's unfortunate that children are caught up in this, that's not their decision, but it's the decision of their parents or their mother," Albanese added.
Former Islamic State fighters from multiple countries, their wives and children have been detained in camps since the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq.
Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.
– Reported with Associated Press
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