The federal government has temporarily banned an Australian citizen with links to Islamic State from returning home from Syria.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed one of the 34 Australians who tried to leave a Syrian refugee camp this week had been issued a temporary exclusion order (TEO) “on advice from security agencies”.
“At this stage, security agencies have not provided advice that other members of the cohort meet the required legal thresholds for temporary exclusion orders,” he said in a statement.
Albanese’s warning to ISIS-linked families in Syria
The order means the individual could be banned from entering Australia for up to two years.
It comes after a group of 11 Australian families held in the Al-Roj refugee camp in north-eastern Syria for more than six years attempted to start travelling home this week.
On Monday, the convoy left the camp with plans to head to the Syrian capital, Damascus, and then eventually continue home to Australia, the ABC was told.
Shortly into their journey, Syrian government authorities refused to allow the group to continue, so they were forced to turn around.
It is unclear when the group — 11 women and 23 children —  may attempt the journey again.
Opposition raises concerns about rest of group
The temporary exclusion order is the latest action from the federal government, which has for years grappled with how to deal with the so-called “ISIS brides”.
Most of the women are presumed to have moved to Syria with their ISIS fighter husbands, who were subsequently killed or captured when Kurdish forces, backed by the United States, helped defeat Islamic State in 2019.
The children were either brought to Syria with their parents or born in the Al-Roj camp.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam, who this week had called on the federal government to issue TEOs to block the cohort from returning, said he had “grave concerns” about the rest of the group.
“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.
“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 OK?”
Legal experts, however, have warned that Australia has an obligation to allow its citizens to return home and argued that leaving them in Syria could put them at greater risk of radicalisation.
Liberal senator Dave Sharma said the government only acted to issue the TEO after pressure from the Coalition.Â
Senator Sharma said Australians were entitled to know if and when the cohort was returning to Australia.
“These people have been gone overseas to fight with Islamic State, or accompanied people who were joining Islamic State, and been in an ISIS-run camp,” he said.
Attempt coincides with emptying of second refugee camp
The Australians’ attempt to leave the Al-Roj camp coincides with the emptying of another camp holding families of ISIS fighters, Al-Hol, following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.
In recent weeks, about 500 people from Al-Hol have arrived at a new facility, the Akbaran camp near Akhtarin, in the north of Syria’s Aleppo province, according to an NGO official.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said people in Al-Hol were entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.
Last year, a small group of Australian women and children believed to have spent time at Al-Hol and Al-Roj smuggled themselves out of the country and returned home.
The six women and children escaped Syria without the support of the Australian government.Â