Australian women linked to ISIS arrested, accused of slavery after Syrian return

By Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY, May 7 (Reuters) – Three Australian women linked to the extremist group Islamic State were arrested on Thursday after arriving home with their children following years in a camp in Syria, and were expected to be charged with slavery and terrorism offences, police said.

The Australian government said on Wednesday that four women and nine children who had been detained in northeast Syria planned to return to Australia, but would receive no government assistance.

A 54-year-old woman arriving at Melbourne airport on Thursday evening was arrested and was expected to be charged with four counts of crimes against humanity relating to slavery, the Australian Federal Police said on Thursday.

A 31-year-old woman on the same flight was also arrested and would be charged with two slavery offences, AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt told a press conference in Canberra.

Each charge carries a maximum of 25 years in prison.

At Sydney airport, a 32-year-old woman was arrested and was expected to be charged with two offences, including being a member of a terrorist organisation, both of which carry a maximum jail term of 10 years.

“The safety of the community is the number one priority for all agencies involved,” Nutt said, adding preparations for the women’s return began as early as 2015.

He declined to comment on the status of the fourth woman or the children.

The AFP earlier said the children were expected to enter community reintegration and support programmes. 

Some Australian women travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016 to join their husbands, who had allegedly become ISIS members.

Following ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019, many relatives of suspected fighters were detained in camps, including al-Roj in the northeast of the country where the latest Australian returnees were held, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In January, the United States began moving detained ISIS members out of Syria after the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had been guarding around a dozen facilities holding fighters and affiliated civilians, including foreigners. 

The Australian government repatriated four women and 13 children from Syrian camps in 2022. About 21 Australians remain in al-Roj, the ABC reported.

(Reporting by Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Alex Richardson)