'ISIS brides' and children secure flights to Australia

Monday, 27 April 2026 16:39

The group with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group could be back in Australia within days.

A group of women and children with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group could be on their way back to Australia within days, having secured flights out of Syria.

The group of four women and nine children left the dire conditions at Syria's Al-Roj camp on Friday, after spending seven years in the camp following the fall of the Islamic State caliphate.

They all have obtained Australian passports.

A group of so-called ISIS brides and their children left a camp in Northern Syria today, hoping to return to Australia following a failed repatriation attempt earlier this year.

The group, who are all Australian citizens, hope to depart Damascus within the next few days.

It's understood the group will need to undergo security clearances in the Syrian capital, with an army official saying it could take around 72 hours from the time they left the camp last Friday.

Once those checks are complete, there could still be further security checks during their flights back to Australia - the exact details and stop-off points of which remain unclear.

At least some could face criminal charges.

The group of 13 are part of a larger group of 34 Australians – 11 women and 23 children – who attempted to return to Australian shores in February.

Only one of the women has been temporarily banned from returning to Australia by the federal government following their scuttled February repatriation attempt.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke issued a temporary exclusion order on the woman, which prevents high-risk citizens from returning to Australia for up to two years.

The exclusion orders were introduced in 2019 to prevent defeated Islamic State fighters from returning to Australia.

There are no public reports of an order being issued before.

Burke said at the time that security agencies had not advised that any of the other Australians in the group warranted an exclusion order and they couldn't be made against children younger than 14.

However, the federal opposition is calling for most exclusion orders to be issued.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles during a joint press conference following the Defence Ministers meeting, at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday 26 March 2026. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

"We are talking here about people who deliberately chose a terrorist organisation ahead of Australia," Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Ted O'Brien said.

"They chose violence over peace."

Defence Minister Richard Marles said he has the utmost confidence in the nation's security agencies to bar anyone who poses a threat.

"Our intelligence agencies and our security agencies are always alert to anyone who might come into the country and we have utter faith in respect of what they do and of course they monitor people where that is appropriate," he said.

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