Government action needs to be taken to prevent a group of Australian families with links to former ISIS fighters from re-entering the country, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says.

Four women and their nine children and grandchildren have left a Syrian refugee camp, in an effort to travel home to Australia. 

Mr Taylor questioned whether Australia’s security would be put at risk by allowing the group back into the country.

Australian ‘ISIS brides’ leave camp in Syria

A group of Australian families with ties to former Islamic State fighters have begun another attempt to travel home to Australia after spending years stranded in a Syrian refugee camp.

Speaking on the ABC’S Insiders program, Mr Taylor said Australian interests and security had to be put ahead of people who left the country in support of a terrorist organisation. 

On Friday the ABC revealed the group was being moved by Syrian interior forces from the Al-Roj camp to the capital Damascus.

Mr Taylor said the government should be doing everything it could to stop the families, who are Australian citizens, from travelling home. 

“I’m saying the government should be making every possible effort to not accept these people back into the country,” he said.

“It’s clear that they have been providing assistance, whether it’s through issuing and distributing passports, whether it’s doing DNA tests, whether indeed it is supporting third parties to do the repatriation.”

He pointed to exclusion orders as an action that should be taken.

“Only one temporary exclusion order has been issued,” he said. 

“We don’t know how recently security assessments have been done on these people.”

On Friday, a government spokesperson said the government “is not and will not repatriate people from Syria”.

The spokesperson said security agencies had been monitoring the situation in Syria, but warned of consequences the cohort might face upon their arrival.

“Our position hasn’t changed, we’re not providing them with any assistance, no repatriation,” Cabinet Minister Mark Butler said. 

“If they manage to get to Australian borders and they have committed any crimes they will be met by the full force of the law at those borders.”

‘Do you trust ASIO?’

Asked repeatedly whether he trusted ASIO assessments of the group, Mr Taylor avoided the question, instead telling Insiders he did not trust the government. 

“In the end it’s the government that makes these decisions and they are making decisions,” he said. 

“They had a decision in front of them, in front of the parliament, where they rejected the legislation.”

That failed legislation aimed to make it an offence to help ISIS-linked families return to Australia.

Mr Butler said intelligence agencies were providing security advice about temporary exclusion orders on the basis of national security grounds. 

A crowd of journalists and photographers surround a small group of women wearing hijabs and face masks.

The families attempted to leave the Al-Roj camp for Australia in February. (Supplied)

The Coalition has promised to introduce an immigration policy based on Australian values, if elected. 

It would be an “intelligence driven and risk-based” approach, Mr Taylor said. 

“Some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time,” he told Insiders. 

“But there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries.”

Asked whether he considered China a “bad country”, Mr Taylor instead pointed to Iran as an example. 

“If we’ve got a part of the world where we know the risks are higher, then the screens should appropriately take account of that,” he said. 

“It needs to be intelligence-based, based on the individual, not the country.”