Australia’s prime minister insists his country will not accept women and children from a camp housing people with alleged ties to Islamic State, after Syrian officials attempted to repatriate them.
On Monday, 34 women and children from 11 families were supposed to make their way from Al Roj camp to the Syrian capital, Damascus, and then fly to Australia.
But they were returned to the camp after Syrian officials said the procedures for their departure were not complete, and they would not be able to travel.
When asked about the attempt to repatriate them, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC News, “we won’t repatriate them”.
He added: “My mother would have said, ‘if you make your bed, you lie in it’. These are people who went overseas supporting Islamic State and went there to provide support for people who basically want a caliphate.
“We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation.”
Arguably, the most well-known resident of Al Roj camp, also known as Roj camp, is Shamima Begum. She was 15 when she and two other girls fled London in 2015 to marry IS fighters in Syria.
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Begum married a Dutch man fighting for IS and had three children, who all died. She has lost an appeal against the British government’s decision to revoke her UK citizenship.
In November, a counterterrorism review called for Begum and other British-linked people in Syria to be repatriated, calling the UK an “outlier” in its policy towards such citizens
Hakmiyeh Ibrahim, the camp’s director, said Monday’s planned repatriations were organised by family members of the returnees and not directly with Australian authorities.
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Al Roj camp houses about 2,200 people from around 50 nationalities, mostly women and children, who have supposed links to the extremist group.
Most in the camp are not technically prisoners and have not been accused of a crime, but they have, in effect, been detained in the heavily guarded camp, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
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During an interview with ABC News, Mr Albanese hinted at potential consequences if people returned: “We want to make it clear… to the people involved that, if there are any breaches of the law, then they will face the full force of the Australian law.”
The fate of the Al Roj camp and the similar but larger Al Hol camp has been a matter of debate for years.
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Human rights groups have cited poor living conditions and pervasive violence in the camps, but many countries have been reluctant to take back their citizens who are detained there.
Mr Ibrahim, the camp director, said 16 families were repatriated last year, including German, British and French nationals. In 2022, three Australian families were repatriated.
