Updated ,first published
Anthony Albanese has maintained his insistence that his government is not helping IS-linked families return home, even though Syrian officials confirmed overnight that the women and children have passports issued by Australia.
This masthead revealed on Wednesday that the head of the camp detaining the 34 women and children confirmed the families had presented valid passports. Sources with knowledge of the situation, but who are not authorised to speak publicly, referred to the passports presented at the al-Roj camp as “single-use-only” documents.
In an exclusive interview in Arabic with this masthead, camp boss Hakamia Ibrahim said: “We photographed the families’ passports and made copies. I personally saw the passports and obtained copies of them – this is a security measure.” Authorities in the north-east of Syria have always required valid travel documents before families can be released from the camp.
Requests by this masthead to see the documents were declined.
The 11 women and 23 children – all Australian citizens – are trying to get home after their IS-fighter husbands were imprisoned or killed. They have lived in tents for seven years since the fall of the so-called caliphate in March 2019.
The prime minister has for months denied the government has been aiding any Australians leave Syria, but the issuing of passports to them challenges that narrative.
He insists that issuing a passport, and supporting a family-organised repatriation, does not constitute “assistance”.
“An implementation of Australian law is what is happening,” Albanese told journalists in Tasmania on Wednesday. “We are providing no assistance to these people, and won’t provide any assistance to these people. But we won’t breach Australian law”.
The Passports Act says citizens must be issued a passport to “any Australian who meets eligibility requirements” – requirements that “go to citizenship and identity,” according to senior DFAT officials in answer to parliamentary questions earlier this month.
However, multiple previous requests by the families for their passports have been rebuffed. Albanese has not answered questions about what has changed recently to make it possible.
In north-east Syria, where the 11 women and 23 children must travel to get home, Albanese’s comments are being reported as the Australian government refusing to repatriate the cohort. Ibrahim also said that, since the women were turned around on the highway and returned to the camp on Monday, it was unclear if they would obtain permission to travel at all.
Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said temporary exclusion orders should be considered to keep the families offshore to allow officials time to build a legal case against them over their terror affiliations.
“It can keep an Australian citizen offshore for up to two years while a case is built against them so that they can be charged if they ever do choose to return subsequently,” Paterson told Sky News.
“Now it is possible, depending on the individual circumstances of each of these people, that they have committed offences while overseas, it appears that they’re associated with a listed terrorist organisation, ISIS, which is a crime.”
Albanese said the government was taking national security advice over whether it could issue such orders – a counter-terrorism measure to stop citizens who are deemed to be a security threat from re-entering the country for up to two years.
“We will do what we can to keep Australians safe within the law,” Albanese said. Concerns have been raised about whether the orders are constitutional, though the question has never been tested in the High Court.
Human rights advocates have pleaded for mercy for the 23 children in the cohort and the women who say they were coerced into joining their husbands in Syria.
When asked about children, who did not choose to leave Australia, Albanese said, “I think it’s unfortunate that children are caught up in this. That’s not their decision, but it’s the decision of their parents or their mother.” However, he continued to insist that, “we are doing nothing to repatriate or to assist these people”.
“We want to make sure that we continue to be very clear about the government’s position. I can’t be clearer,” he told reporters.
Ibrahim, the camp director, said the families were devastated that the attempt to bring them home from the camp had, at least temporarily, stalled. “The hopes of the women and children have been shattered.”
Family advocates say the Australian government has known of the identities, status and activities of this cohort for more than a decade in some cases, and they have been extensively investigated by the Australian Federal Police and ASIO since their capture and internment in 2019.
Those who have been returned in two previous tranches in 2019 and 2022 have faced minor criminal charges at most, they say. No convictions have been recorded.
The “family repatriation” has been organised by western Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi. Rifi is a key community supporter of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in his western Sydney electorate. Rifi’s brother, Ashraf, is an influential political figure in neighbouring Lebanon.
Rifi, who is in the Middle East helping facilitate the transfer, has not responded to requests for comment.
Ibrahim said there had been “no official statement from either the Syrian or Australian government explaining why they haven’t received the Australian families”. A lack of “coordination” within Syria has been blamed by local officials.
Save the Children’s Syria country director Rasha Muhrez said the al-Roj camp was not an environment for children.
“It’s a camp setting. It’s not a place for children to live or to grow. There’s no sight of when the children can leave the camp or what the future can hold,” she said on ABC Radio National.
Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, who specialises in human rights law and sits on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, said on Wednesday the women should be prosecuted if they had committed a crime, but the families should be returned to reduce the risk of further radicalising the children.
Michael Bachelard is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X or email.
Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.