The last remaining Australian women and children stranded in the al-Roj detention camp have reportedly left north-east Syria for Damascus, ahead of an expected return to Australia. Vision obtained by an ABC news crew showed a minivan leaving the camp, which it reported was transporting all the remaining seven women and 14 children, though this has not been officially confirmed. The group, travelling in convoy with a Syrian government escort, is expected to book flights home to Australia in the coming days.
All are Australian citizens with travel documents, though one woman is subject to a temporary exclusion order preventing her re-entry to Australia. The Australian government did not confirm the group's expected departure, and it's understood no plane tickets have been booked yet. Return could take a number of days. Minister Tanya Plibersek said the second group would face repercussions on their return, telling the ABC: "They'll face the same consequences as the first group."
The Australians are the wives, widows, and children of jailed or dead Islamic State fighters, most held at the camp for over six years. Some women could face terror-related charges on landing in Australia, though many claim they were coerced, tricked, or trafficked into IS territory. Some children were born in the camp and have never left it.
This is the fifth group of Australians to leave Syrian detention camps since 2019. The Morrison and Albanese governments each conducted one government-controlled repatriation in 2019 and 2022. Late last year, a group escaped the nearby al-Hawl camp, making their way home. Last month, four women and nine children returned from Damascus, with three arrested and charged upon arrival in Melbourne and Sydney.
The squalid, dangerous al-Roj camp, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and described by the US as an "incubator for radicalisation," is being steadily shuttered ahead of a handover to the Syrian government. The Albanese government maintains it's doing nothing to assist the Australians' return, warning any offenders will be prosecuted to the "full extent of the law." Health Minister Mark Butler noted returnees have the legal right as citizens to make their way back, "but if they've committed any offence, they'll be met at that border... with police and charged potentially with very serious offences." The US government, which funds the camp, has ratcheted up pressure on Australia to take back its citizens.