Australia denies repatriation assistance to ISIS families
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, refuted reports on February 22 that the government is working to repatriate Australian citizens from Syria who are being held in a camp due to alleged family ties to ISIS militants, according to The Arab Weekly and agencies.
The group of 34 women and children is planning to begin their journey to Australia from Damascus.
Following a local media report claiming the government would assist in the group’s repatriation, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has denied the plan live on Australian Broadcasting Corp television on February 22.
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has also denied that the government would help with the repatriation process. As the leader of Australia’s centre-left party, he has a history of pro-migration stances.
Under existing legislation, the government can also cancel the citizenship of dual nationals linked to a terrorist organisation, as the Islamic State is formally recognised in Australia.
The prospect of bringing back family members of alleged Islamic State fighters has become a contentious political matter in Australia amid rising support for the anti-immigration One Nation party headed by Pauline Hanson.
Other detainees have attempted in the past to leave the Syrian camps where they are held in as a result of alleged relations to Islamic State militants, and in March 2025, an Australian man who had left his country to join ISIS had also been found in a prison in north-eastern Syria.
Mustafa Hajj-Obeid was among a group of alleged IS members whose Australian citizenship was revoked, before being reinstated in 2022 after a successful legal challenge. Before he left Australia, Hajj-Obeid worked as a security guard in Sydney. In March 2019, his wife, Rayan Hamdoush, has also been moved to a prison camp for IS-linked women and children.
The Australian government has repatriated women and children from Syrian detention camps in the past. At least 42 Australians are still being held without charge.
The Arab Weekly and agencies, Maghrebi.org
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