Australian woman and daughter to return from Syrian camp for IS families under strict conditions
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The last Australian woman held in a Syrian camp for families of Islamic State group fighters has been given permission to return to Australia under strict conditions, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Thursday.
The woman and her nine-year-old daughter had planned to return to Australia in February with a group of Australian women and children held in the Roj camp, but was prevented from leaving by a temporary exclusion order.
Australia created the orders in 2019 to prevent defeated IS fighters from returning from the Middle East for up to two years. The woman is the only known target of such an order.
Burke said on Thursday his government could not legally prevent the 29-year-old former Sydney resident from returning any longer after her lawyers applied for a permit to return.
Police and security agencies would enforce strict conditions when she returns, including having to advise authorities where she lived, worked, studied and planned to travel to, Burke said.
She would also need to give 24 hours notice before using any form of telecommunications, Burke said.
“Even if you want to use a public phone, it’s 24 hours notice. Any social media, 24 hours notice on everything has to be given so that there will be a very high level of scrutiny and surveillance and we have gone absolutely to the legal limit that we’re able to,” Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Opposition lawmakers have criticized the government for not amending the law to prevent the woman’s return.
The government said she was issued with the exclusion order on national security grounds, but did not detail those grounds.
The woman’s lawyer, Moustafa Kheir, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Australian Federal Police have been investigating since 2015 the behavior of Australians who had traveled to the region where IS declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.
It is not clear whether the woman could be arrested on arrival in Australia. Three of four women who arrived in Australia with nine children on May 7 were arrested on arrival and charged with terrorism and slavery offenses. They have been refused bail and remain in jail.
The woman was an 18-year-old when she left Sydney for Syria in 2015.