A group of 19 Australian women and held in Syria since the defeat of Islamic State will return to Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, bringing an end to seven years of detention while thrusting themselves into a heated political debate about their future.
The cohort of 12 children and seven women left a Syrian detention camp last week before boarding flights home. Most either left Australia more than a decade ago, or were born in Syria or Iraq after their parents travelled to the so-called caliphate.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said on Tuesday morning that security agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and “have longstanding plans in place to manage and monitor them”.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he said.
“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.
“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community.”
The Sydney group is expected to include Nesrine, Sumaya and Aminah Zahab and Hyam Raad, along with their children.
Aminah is the mother of Muhammad Zahab, who the ABC reported in 2019 was considered to be a senior member of IS who recruited more than a dozen family members before he was killed in 2018. He reportedly convinced Aminah and his sister Sumaya to also travel to Syria.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailHis cousin, Nesrine Zahab, has said she was 21 when she and a female cousin snuck away from a family holiday in Lebanon to help refugees on the Turkish side of the Syrian border.
She said she had no intention of entering the war-torn country.
“Who walks into a war zone? I was going to see Syrians, yes, because of what they’re going through,” Nesrine Zahab told the ABC.
“I found that I was in Syria, did I have a heart attack? Of course.
“Did I cry and scream and chuck a fit like a little girl? I chucked the biggest tantrum.”
The group returning to Melbourne was expected to include Kawsar Kanj and her five children, one of whom is now an adult, and Kirsty Rosse-Emile and her two children.
Kanj and her husband, Majed Raad – who was acquitted over his alleged role in the Pendennis terror plot almost two decades ago – travelled with three children to Syria from Melbourne’s northern suburbs in 2014. Two more children were born after the couple left.
According to documents seen by Guardian Australia, Kanj had her citizenship cancelled by then home affairs minister Peter Dutton in 2019 in a decision later overturned by a high court ruling.
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