Australian authorities on Thursday arrested three women with alleged links to the Islamic State group after they returned from Syria with their children, with police preparing slavery and terrorism-related charges against them.
According to news agency AFP, the women were among four Australian women and nine children repatriated from detention camps in northeast Syria, where they had spent years following the collapse of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.
Two Qatar Airways flights carrying the returnees landed separately in Melbourne and Sydney on Thursday, reported news agency AP. One flight carried three women and eight children to Melbourne, while another woman and her son arrived in Sydney.
Australian Federal Police said a 54-year-old woman was arrested at Melbourne airport and is expected to face four counts of crimes against humanity relating to slavery.
According to Reuters, the charges include allegations of possessing slaves, using slaves and slave trading in Syria.
A 31-year-old woman on the same flight was also arrested and is expected to face two slavery-related charges, while a 32-year-old woman arrested in Sydney is set to be charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and travelling to a banned area.
Women may face severe penalties
Assistant commissioner Stephen Nutt said the alleged offences were linked to activities in Syria and stressed that “the safety of the community is the number one priority for all agencies involved.”
Some of the charges carry maximum prison sentences of up to 25 years.
A fourth woman travelling with the group had not been arrested as of Thursday evening.
Under Australian law, travelling to Syria’s former ISIS stronghold of Raqqa between 2014 and 2017 without a legitimate reason was punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Years spent in Syrian detention camps
Many of the women had reportedly travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016, often alongside husbands linked to IS. After the extremist group’s territorial defeat in 2019, relatives of suspected fighters were detained in camps such as al-Roj in northeast Syria.
Some women told journalists they had spent as long as 12 years in Syria, with children born in harsh camp conditions.
ABC reporter Bridget Rollason, who travelled on one of the flights, said one woman told her she was “willing to take the hit” of possible arrest so her children could return to Australia.
“One of the women I spoke to said that what she missed the most was coffee. She said she couldn't wait to get to Little Collins Street in Melbourne to have a coffee again,” Rollason said, according to AP.
The return of the women has reignited debate in Australia over the repatriation of citizens linked to extremist organisations.
Home affairs minister Tony Burke earlier described the women’s decision to join ISIS as “a horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation”.
At the same time, child welfare groups urged authorities to focus on the wellbeing of the children. Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said the priority should now be helping the children “resume a normal life” in Australia, according to AP.
Australia has previously repatriated small groups of women and children from Syrian camps in 2019, 2022 and 2025.
About 21 Australians are still believed to remain in the al-Roj camp.
