Tony Burke has confirmed a group of Australian women and children linked to ISIS are on their way to Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed a second group of Australians linked to ISIS are on their way to Australia from Syria.

Seven women and 12 children had “made plans” to travel to Australia, Mr Burke said in a statement.
He said the government would continue to “not provide any assistance to this group”.

“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” Mr Burke said.

Mr Burke has broken his silence on the group’s return. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“As we have said many times – any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.”
He said law enforcement and intelligence agencies had been preparing for Australians returning from Syria for more than a decade, and had “long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them”.

”The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he said.

ISIS-linked Australians have been trapped in detention camps in Syria’s northeast since 2019. Picture: Four Corners

The majority of those travelling from Syria are understood to be on a connecting Qatar Airways flight from Doha set to land in Sydney about 5.30pm, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The group departed al-Roj internment camp on Friday by bus and later reached Damascus, before acquiring plane tickets to begin their journey home.

Save the Children, a prominent advocate for the repatriation of the group, welcomed news of their arrival.

“These innocent children have endured years in dangerous and unstable conditions, and we have held serious concerns for their safety and wellbeing,” Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said.

“The political debate surrounding their future in Australia has been deeply disappointing.

“As Australian citizens, it was always a matter of ‘when’ these women and children came home, not ‘if’.

“While much attention has focused on the circumstances of the mothers, two thirds of the returning group are children.”

Save the Children chief Mat Tinkler said the rhetoric around the group’s return had been ‘disappointing’. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

He said Australia must prioritise the children’s “safety, wellbeing and right to live in this country as Australian citizens”.

One Australian woman who was part of the cohort living in al-Roj has been issued with a temporary exclusion order (TEO) by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on the advice of ASIO.

It bans her from returning to the country for up to two years on the grounds of national security.

NewsWire understands this woman remains in Syria. Her child, to whom the TEO doesn’t apply, remains with her.

Earlier this month, four women and nine children previously living in al-Roj returned to Australia.

Three of those women were arrested and charged by the Australian Federal Police upon arrival at Melbourne and Sydney airports.

Chaos erupted at the return of the first cohort of ISIS-linked Australians in May. Picture: NewsWire / Jason Edwards

Two of the women were charged with crimes against humanity offences, while another was charged with terrorism offences.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said ahead of the first group’s arrival that children in the cohort would be asked to participate in “community integration programs, therapeutic support, and countering violent extremism” programs.

The Albanese government has insisted it has no sympathy for the group and has repeatedly refused to repatriate them from Syria.

But it could not stop the group of Australian citizens from being provided passports, which they received earlier this year through intermediary Jamal Rifi, a prominent Sydney doctor.