A cohort of 19 Australian women and children linked to Islamic State arrived in Sydney and Melbourne on flights from Damascus via Doha. The families, primarily wives and widows of deceased ISIS fighters, made their journey to Australia without government financial assistance. [1, 2]
- Four women and six children to land in Sydney, nine to land in Melbourne
- Counter-terrorism teams on hand for their arrival
A 19-strong group of women and children linked to Islamic State are expected to face charges when they land in Australia on Tuesday night, as counter-terrorism teams prepare for their return.
More below the fold
Pressure is mounting on the NSW and federal governments to reveal who authorised taxpayer-funded support for the latest ISIS-linked returnees, after reports that four women and their children were placed in temporary hotel accommodation and given a pizza dinner after landing in Sydney.
NSW Shadow Police and Counter-terrorism Minister Anthony Roberts accused the Minns Government of hiding the real cost from the public, warning that the bill will go far beyond “pizzas” and demanding full transparency over security, welfare, housing and reintegration support.
The controversy follows the return of multiple Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps, with federal authorities confirming counter-terrorism teams are monitoring returnees while investigations continue. Several women from earlier cohorts have already been charged with terrorism or slavery-related offences.
The central question is now unavoidable: who signed off on the support, what is it costing taxpayers, and why are Australians being asked to trust quiet government assurances after citizens linked to one of the most barbaric terrorist organisations on earth were allowed back through the border?
Continued:
Four women and six children are due to land in Sydney at 5.30pm on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha, while two women and seven children are scheduled to land in Melbourne at 5.15pm.
Some of the children are reportedly dealing with medical complications.
Police said that ‘operational arrangements have been put in place’ for their return.
However, not everyone expected to return to Australia made it onto the flights, with one ISIS bride reportedly stopped at the airport and prevented from boarding.
Hodan Abby has been banned from returning to Australia on national security grounds under a government-issued temporary exclusion order and is understood to have remained overseas with her child.
Daily Mail understands Abby and her child had secured flights home but were turned away at the airport due to the exclusion order.
Abby was given the option of allowing her daughter to return to Australia with the other mothers because the child is not subject to the order, but she declined. Syrian authorities in Damascus said they would care for them.
Abby’s family has hired Birchgrove Legal principal solicitor Moustafa Kheir to fight the exclusion order, which is due to remain in place until February 2028.
After fleeing her western Sydney home with a friend at the age of 18, Abby spent years trapped in Kurdish-run camps with her daughter, who suffered shrapnel wounds to her head, hip and back.
Her daughter, now aged nine, lives with disabilities and ongoing speech and movement impairments as a result of her injuries.
Among those expected to land in Sydney are Aminah, Nesrine and Sumaya Zahab.
Aminah is the mother of maths teacher-turned-Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who died in an air strike in 2018.
She told the ABC in 2019 that she and her husband Hicham were tricked by their son into going to Syria, describing herself as a ‘clueless parent’ who let her children ‘rule (her) life’.
Sumaya is Aminah’s daughter and the sister of Muhammad Zahab. She travelled to Syria in 2014.
Nesrine, who entered Syria from Sydney in her early 20s, previously told Four Corners she was holidaying with family in Lebanon when she unwittingly entered the war zone.
She then married Ahmed Merhi – a Sydney-born Islamic State terrorist who was sentenced to death in Iraq – because she claimed she thought it would give her the best chance of survival.
Other names linked to the latest cohort include Melbourne woman Kirsty Rosse-Emile who married IS fighter Nabil Kadmiry when she was 14 years old.
She previously claimed she was tricked into entering the warzone.
However, her former housemate Sara – whose identity has been concealed – has previously told the Daily Mail she knew exactly what she was doing when she flew to Syria to pledge allegiance to IS.
Ms Rosse-Emile was known by her Islamic name Asma at the time.
‘Asma turned around and said “I don’t want to go to school, I want to go and make bombs”,’ Sara recalled.
Immigration minister Tony Burke said the latest cohort of brides can expect to face the full force of the law on their arrival home.
‘The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,’ Burke said.
‘These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation.
‘Any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.’
Nationals leader Matt Canavan asked why temporary exclusion orders were not handed out to more ISIS brides.
‘It’s probably too late for anything to change now, of course, but the government has exposed Australians to unnecessary risks.’
It comes just weeks after four ISIS brides and their nine children returned to Australia on May 7 after spending seven years at the same camp in Syria.
Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, were charged with enslavement and using a slave after landing in Melbourne.
Abbas was also charged with possessing a slave and engaging in slave trading.
Her other daughter Zahra Ahmad, 33, is not accused of committing any crimes.
Janai Safar, 32, landed in Sydney and was charged with entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and with joining the terrorist organisation.