3 Australian women returning from Syria are arrested on suspicion of slavery and terrorism offenses

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three women who were among 13 Australians returning home from Syria were arrested at airports on Thursday on allegations of slavery and terrorism inside the Islamic State group’s former so-called caliphate, police said.

The four women and nine children, who have spent years in Roj Camp in the Syrian desert, landed on two Qatar Airways flights from Doha Thursday, a day after the Australian government announced their intention to return.

Stephen Nutt, the Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terrorism, said a 53-year-old woman who arrived at Melbourne Airport would be charged by Friday with four crimes against humanity including possessing a slave and engaging in slave trading.

He said a 31-year-old woman, who also landed in Melbourne, would be charged with two slavery offenses. Each offense carried a potential maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, Nutt said.

A third woman, a 32-year-old who arrived with her son at Sydney Airport, would be charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and with entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organization. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Under Australian law, it became an offense to travel to the former Syrian Islamic State group stronghold of Raqqa without a legitimate reason from 2014 to 2017.

The Australian government had condemned the women for supporting Islamic State militants by traveling to Syria and had refused to help repatriate them.

Police have been investigating for more than a decade Australians’ potential involvement in atrocities while in Syria.

Deakin University extremism expert Joshua Roose said Australian authorities were investigating abuses within the caliphate including enslaving Yazidi women and harsh policing of sharia law.

“Some of the worst forms of violence were in fact enacted by women, so we need to understand that it’s a problem,” Roose told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

ABC reporter Bridget Rollason, who was on the Melbourne flight from Doha, said some of the women told her of spending as long as 12 years in Syria, with children born in hellish conditions inside the camps.

“When I did actually ask them about the prospect of facing arrest, they actually told me that they were willing to take the hit, they said, for their children because they want to bring their children back to Australia,” Rollason said.

“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,” she added.

The child welfare-focused aid agency Save the Children failed in a court bid in 2024 to compel the Australian government to repatriate citizens from Syrian camps.

Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said Australian authorities now had to give priority to the returned children’s welfare.

“Two-thirds of this cohort that we’re talking about … are children. So there’s been a lot of focus on the women and the choices they may have made. But we need the focus now to be on these children and give them a chance of resuming a normal life here in Australia,” Tinkler said.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have returned without government assistance.