Authorities in two Australian states are preparing to resettle children returning from squalid detention camps and life under Islamic State rule, as at least some of their mothers face possible criminal charges. Four women and nine children are expected to return to Australia on Thursday, with all of them apart from a mother and her child bound for Melbourne.
The Australian federal police said on Wednesday that some of the women would be arrested and charged, while support would be made available for the children. Mat Tinkler, the CEO of Save the Children Australia, said this was exactly the scenario that had been advocated for since the collapse of the so-called caliphate in 2019 led to the group of 34 Australians being detained in camps in north-east Syria.
“We need to focus on what is going to happen to these women when they arrive, and we’ve heard from the AFP commissioner today about that, and we also need to focus on giving these children the space to recover, to survive, to thrive,” Tinkler told the ABC. “Two-thirds of this cohort that we’re talking about in Syria are children.
“There’s been a lot of focus on the women and the choices they may have made but we need to focus on these children and give them a chance of resuming a normal life in Australia.” Tinkler said the fact that other women and children had returned, and that other western nations had also successfully reintegrated their citizens, meant the “temperature should be dialled right down” in relation to the cohort. There have been recent unconfirmed reports from Syria that evacuations of the camps have begun, increasing the likelihood that other Australian citizens may seek to return home.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, insisted the government had provided no assistance to the group. Australian citizens cannot legally be prevented from returning to the country unless a formal exclusion order is in place.