Australia confirmed this Wednesday that a group of women and children linked to the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and with Australian citizenship plan to return to the country, but warned that they will have to “face the full weight of the law”.
The Minister of the Interior, Tony Burke, indicated in a statement that the authorities will not repatriate or provide assistance to the group, made up of 13 people, four women and nine minors, warning, on the other hand, that security agencies are prepared for the possible arrival of the people and that “a portion will be detained”.
“These are people who made the terrible decision to join a dangerous terrorist organization and put their children in an unspeakable situation,” Burke said.
The minister added that any member found to have committed crimes will face corresponding legal consequences.
“As we have said many times, any member of this group who has committed crimes can expect to face the full weight of the law,” he stressed.
Burke indicated that intelligence and security agencies have been preparing for this type of scenario for more than a decade, with “long-standing plans to manage and monitor them.”
This case is part of the context of recent attempts to return Australian citizens linked to the Islamic extremist group.
Authorities tried to make it difficult to return
In February, the government issued a temporary exclusion order against one of 34 Australians who attempted to return from a camp in northeast Syria, a move that could prevent entry into the country for a period of up to two years.
Burke explained at the time that the decision was taken “on the recommendation of security agencies”, while the rest of the group, 11 women and 23 minors, remained detained for more than six years in the Al-Roj camp, in northeastern Syria, after the territorial fall of IS in 2019.
Syrian authorities at the time prevented the group from moving to Damascus, forcing them to return to the camp.
Although Canberra did not facilitate the group’s return, Australia has international obligations to allow its citizens to return and, according to experts, keeping them in camps could increase the risk of radicalization.
Attack in Sydney killed 15 people
The case reignites the debate in Australia about how to manage the return of family members of foreign extremist fighters, in a context of renewed security concerns following the December attack on the Jewish community in Sydney.
Days later, IS celebrated having inspired the attack, although it did not claim direct responsibility.
The UN Security Council Committee on Terrorism estimated in 2014 that more than 30,000 foreign fighters have moved to conflict zones in the Middle East to join fundamentalist organizations such as al-Qaeda and IS.
