Two Women Arrested After Returning From Syria

Australian women with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants will be arrested and face criminal investigations if they return from Syria, police said. The Australian government was alerted on Wednesday that four women and nine children had booked flights from Damascus to Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.

He did not specify when the four women and nine children were expected to arrive in Australia.

Burke added that the government’s complete lack of support for these individuals is a direct reflection of the decisions that they made. Australian Federal Police have been investigating the behavior of Australians who traveled to the Islamic State group’s caliphate centered in Syria since 2015, Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said.

Those investigations have included potential terrorism offenses and crimes against humanity such as slave trading.

Barrett stated that the children would undergo programs to counter violent extremism. The Australian government was required to provide travel documents to the group, but has repeatedly said it was not helping repatriate the group. Burke said the government has drawn a very hard line saying it will do nothing to assist the individuals.

He noted there are very serious limits on what can be done with respect to preventing a citizen of a country returning to their country. The women were held in Roj Camp near Syria’s border with Iraq. They left Roj Camp last week.

The Syrian government told The Associated Press that the Australian government had refused to receive the women. Members of Australian families at Roj Camp in eastern Syria prepared to leave for Damascus as part of a second repatriation effort by Syrian authorities on Friday, April 24, 2026.