The first group of Australian women and children held in a detention camp in north-east Syria since the fall of the Islamic State (IS) group in 2019 is en route to Sydney.
The ABC can reveal four women and 13 children were taken from the camp on Thursday afternoon and made the 30 kilometre trip to the Iraq border before boarding a plane home.
It is likely to be the first step in repatriating the entire cohort of Australian citizens detained in the war-torn country.
France last week removed 40 women and 15 children from the camps, joining more than 25 countries that had repatriated their citizens since the fall of the IS in early 2019.
Those removed were assessed by Australian officials as being the most vulnerable of the 60 Australian women and children held in Roj.
Australian authorities have been on the ground in Syria, planning the removals with the assistance of the Kurdish administration.
DNA samples were taken from the women and children on October 15 to prove the children are Australian citizens.
"Given the sensitive nature of the matters involved, it would be inappropriate to comment further," a spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told the ABC.
The remaining Australians in Roj are expected to be removed from Syria in two groups — likely in the next few months.
Most of the children were born in Syria and Iraq under IS. Their return marks the first time they will be meeting their extended families.
ABC's Four Corners reported on the desperate situation of the women and children in 2019. At the time, one of the women pleaded to be repatriated and said they did not choose to travel to Syria.
"We didn't know where we were, they stripped us of our phones and passports," she said.
A 22-year-old woman was taken to Syria when she was 15 years old; six months later she was married to a fellow Australian and soon after fell pregnant with their first child.
By the time she was 19, she had given birth to four children.
Her 12-year-old sister, was taken to Syria when she was just five years old.
Plagued with illness, the young girl collapsed in the camp late last year and required urgent medical treatment.
"I want to go back home and live a normal life with my sisters and my mum," the younger sister said at the time.
Another mother and her children are considered vulnerable partly because of her 12-year-old son. His age means he is at risk of soon being moved to an adult prison.
"He's growing up and my fears for my son is to be taken away from me and that's also his fear. I can't imagine that happening to us," she told the ABC earlier this year.
Families still languishing in detention camps
More than 60 Australian women and children who lived under IS have been held against their wills in the al-Hol and Roj camps since the militant group's defeat in March 2019.
Most of the Australians held in the camps are children who have spent the majority of their lives in detention camps.
One of the mothers told the ABC in 2019 they were tricked into entering the country by male relatives.
More than 20 countries removed their women and children from the dusty, violent and disease-ridden camps years ago. Despite that, the then-Morrison government was slow to act, stating it would "not risk one Australian life" to rescue the families.
Under pressure in 2019, the Morrison government repatriated eight orphaned children three months after they were taken to the al-Hol camp, but declined to remove anyone else, despite reports of more severely ill Australian children.
Hundreds of children have died from malnutrition, disease and exposure since being taken to the Syrian camps in early 2019.
It was only after the election of the Labor government this year that Canberra finally moved to execute the rescue mission.
It was unclear what restrictions, if any, they would be under when they return to Australia. It is possible some of the women would be charged by federal police with entering Syria unlawfully.
The Australian government has made no comment about its plans for a group of Australian men who lived under IS and remain in a prison in north-eastern Syria.
An Australian teenager held in an adult prison died early this year after he was injured in an attack on Guweiran prison by IS militants.
Yusuf Zahab sent voice messages to his family before he died begging for help, telling relatives he "might die at any time" as the fighting between IS militants and Kurdish forces intensified.
Yusuf had been taken to Syria by his parents in 2015, when he was 11.
