Australian women and children in squalid Syrian camp are being detained unlawfully, federal court told

The 31 Australians are wives, widows and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters and most have been in the Roj camp in Syria for four years. Photograph: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

Thirty-one Australian women and children forcibly held for four years in a Syrian detention camp have told the federal government to prove it cannot bring them home, or “bring their bodies to the court” in Australia.

In filings before the federal court, Save the Children Australia – representing 11 Australian women and their 20 children – has argued the Australians are being unlawfully detained and their government has the power, and an obligation, to remove them and repatriate them to Australia.