Australia repatriates 17 women and children from Syrian camp

People use umbrellas as they walk in the rain at the Roj camp, where relatives of people suspected of belonging to ISIL (ISIS) are held in Syria's northeastern Hassakeh province [File: Delil Souleiman/AFP]

The Australian government has repatriated four Australian women and their 13 children from a Syrian refugee camp to New South Wales state, home affairs minister Clare O’Neil said.

The repatriation is part of a plan to bring back from Syria dozens of Australian women and children who are relatives of dead or jailed ISIL (ISIS) fighters and who have languished for several years at the al-Hol and Roj detention camps in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria.