{"id":633157,"date":"2026-04-27T02:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T02:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:06:16","slug":"australian-isis-brides-families-secure-flight-tickets-to-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633157\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian ISIS brides, families secure flight tickets to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated April 27, 2026 \u2014 11:00am,first published April 27, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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A group of women and children linked to the Islamic State who have been attempting to return to Australia<\/a> have plane tickets to Australia and hope to depart Damascus within the next few days.<\/p>\n

The group, which includes four women and nine children, are all Australian citizens. They left al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria on Saturday. They had been detained there for seven years following the fall of the Islamic State caliphate.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of Australian families at al-Roj Camp in eastern Syria prepare to leave for Damascus as part of a second repatriation effort.Baderkhan Ahmad (AP)<\/p>\n

A source close to the return process, which is not being facilitated by the government, confirmed to this masthead that the women and children had plane tickets to Australia and would be flying out of Damascus in coming days.<\/p>\n

The source asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the situation.<\/p>\n

The group intends to get on a plane in coming days but their path home remains uncertain. Authorities in Syria or stopover countries may attempt to block their journey.<\/p>\n

The group has been held in the camps since the fall of the so-called caliphate and the death or capture of their husbands and fathers, who allegedly fought for Islamic State.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe al-Roj Camp in eastern Syria.AP<\/p>\n

It comes after Lana Hussein, an official with the women\u2019s protection unit of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which manages the camp\u2019s security, on Saturday said the four families were expected to be \u201cdeported under security procedures\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the second attempt by the group to return to Australia since February.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Their first attempt<\/a> involved a larger cohort of 11 families including 34 women and children, but they were turned back 50 kilometres down the road.<\/p>\n

Distressed at their situation, the mothers said at the time they would willingly go to prison in Australia<\/a> for terrorism offences if it meant they could get their children out of Syria.<\/p>\n

The repatriation of Australians who moved to the Islamic State caliphate last decade has been a headache for successive governments. In recent months, the group\u2019s potential return has fed into a broader debate on extremism and migration settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke have been trying to balance the country\u2019s obligations to Australian citizens against the risk of being seen to aid people who might pose a security threat due to their involvement with a terror group.<\/p>\n

Advocates for the families say many were either children or young women pressured by their husbands at the time they left Australia. But the government has previously said security agencies believed the current cohort contained some particularly radical individuals, making it more risky than groups that had returned in previous years.<\/p>\n

\"AA soldier stands guard as vehicles arrive at al-Roj Camp in eastern Syria to transport Australian families to Damascus as part of a second repatriation effort.AP<\/p>\n

In 2022, the Albanese government said it was incumbent on Australia to bring the group home to give them a chance at rehabilitation. Yet this year, at a moment when community attitudes towards migration are hardening and after the Bondi massacre<\/a> sparked anxiety about extremism, Albanese has taken a more uncompromising approach, declaring the group had \u201cmade their bed\u201d<\/a> and that he would not actively help them to return.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Monday he could not provide specific details about the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian government is not repatriating these people. That\u2019s where the matter stands and we\u2019ve made this really clear. We\u2019re not providing any support at all,\u201d Marles said.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume said the cohort\u2019s return to Australia felt like a \u201cforegone conclusion\u201d. She accused the government of abdicating responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people that we know have actively left Australia and gone to join ISIS-linked terrorists overseas to fight against everything that Australians believe in: equality, the rule of law, democracy. Everything that we believe in, they are against. And yet, somehow this government has said it\u2019s not our problem, it\u2019s not our fault,\u201d Hume told Sky News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to [the government] now to explain what happens to these people when they come back, where they\u2019re going to be settled, which suburbs are they going to be living in, and are there going to be any legal ramifications for their return?\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor frontbencher Mark Butler said on Sky News\u2019 Sunday Agenda<\/a>: \u201cIf they manage to get to Australian borders and they have committed any crimes, they will be met by the full force of law at those borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, who has spoken regularly about the need to \u201cshut the door\u201d to extremists, on Sunday said Labor must make \u201cevery possible effort to not accept these people back into the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that they have been providing assistance, whether it\u2019s through issuing and distributing passports, whether it\u2019s doing DNA tests,\u201d he said, also pointing to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke\u2019s relationship with Dr Jamal Rifi, one of the most prominent advocates in the campaign to bring the families home.<\/p>\n

\"LaborLabor frontbencher Mark Butler says the IS brides will be met with \u201cthe full force of law\u201d at the Australian border.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Burke\u2019s office declined to comment on this story.<\/p>\n

Taylor questioned why the government had used its powers to block the return of only one member of the cohort. However, the Liberal leader ducked questions on whether he trusted Australia\u2019s security agencies to provide appropriate advice on which people should be blocked.<\/p>\n

The group would not be the first to be repatriated from Syria.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Members<\/a><\/p>\n

The Morrison government brought back eight orphans and one newborn in 2019. In 2022, the Albanese government repatriated four Australian women and their 13 children to Sydney, sparking criticism from political opponents.<\/p>\n

Dr Rifi, who helped facilitate the group\u2019s first attempt at returning, has previously said Australia would be \u201csafer if the families can return in an orderly fashion to our shores, where the children may receive proper support\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren should not suffer the consequences of a parent\u2019s evil deeds,\u201d he wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

Rifi did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

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\"MostafaMostafa Rachwani<\/a> is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email<\/a>.\"PaulPaul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 27, 2026 \u2014 11:00am,first published April 27, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-633157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}