Updated ,first published
Three Islamic State-linked women have been arrested by police after arriving back in Australia and will be charged with a series of offences, including crimes against humanity, slave trading and membership of a terrorist organisation.
Amid political rancour about whether they should have been allowed to travel to the country, four women and nine children arrived in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday evening and were greeted by police at the airport.
Grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 54, and a 31-year-old daughter were taken into police custody after arriving at Melbourne airport in a family group of 11 people.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said a 54-year old woman will be charged with slave trading and three crimes-against-humanity offences: enslavement, use of a slave and possession of a slave.
“They will face court once charged, expected as early as tomorrow,” Nutt said.
The offences all carry a maximum jail term of 25 years.
The 31-year-old woman will be charged with enslavement and use of a slave.
Janai Safar, 32, who returned to Sydney with her nine-year-old son, was arrested after police boarded the plane. She was taken to Mascot Police Station.
She will be charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation, with both offences carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years.
A group of men dressed in black appeared at Melbourne’s arrival hall to escort the women and their children from the airport, telling reporters they just “wanted to get them out of here peacefully”.
The children of the arrested women who arrived will be inducted into anti-radicalisation programs and given psychological support as they begin a new life in Australia after spending most of their lives in war zones and decrepit camps.
Passengers on the flight into Sydney reported that at last four federal police officers boarded the plane when it landed.
Safar, a former nursing student whose late husband was an Islamic State fighter, said in 2019 that she would never return to Australia because she feared being treated like a criminal, jailed and her son being taken away from her.
Her son was born in Syria and has spent his entire life living in Islamic State-controlled territory or Syrian detention camps.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett flagged the possible charges on Wednesday when she said police had been investigating whether any of the women “may have committed Commonwealth offences, including terrorism, offences such as entering or remaining in declared areas, and crimes-against-humanity offences such as engaging in slave trading”.
In Melbourne, a group of supporters waiting for the women, including some wearing masks, kept an eye on the large media contingent at the airport.
The police presence at both Sydney and Melbourne airports steadily increased ahead of the arrival of the flights, which both touched down around 5.30pm.
Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell said such crimes-against-humanity charges would be “quite exceptional” in Australia and “exceptionally challenging” to prove.
Citing similarities to the war crimes charges laid against former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, he said: “We are talking about an alleged foreign crime, which happened some time ago and relying on foreign witnesses.”
Any attempted prosecution could be complicated by debate about whether the women were active co-conspirators or bystanders in abuse perpetrated by male family members who remain in Syria.
A United Nations investigation in 2024 found that Islamic State members in Syria “subjected Yazidi women and girls to enslavement, torture, inhuman treatment, murder and rape, including through sexual slavery, as part of their genocidal campaign”.
The arrival of the women and children in Australia follows a failed attempt by the group to return home in February before they were turned around by local authorities.
As the Coalition accused the government of failing to block the women from returning to Australia, Education Minister Jason Clare said he had faith in the Australian Federal Police’s ability to integrate the children into Australian society.
“They know what they’re doing. This is not their first rodeo,” Clare told the ABC’s News Breakfast.
Clare said the children who had been stranded in the camps deserved a shot at a new life in Australia.
“Kids don’t get to choose who their parents are, and these children have seen the sorts of things that no child should ever be exposed to,” he said. “It’s going to take time for these children to reintegrate into Australian society.”
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said on Thursday that “we’ve heard some hideous reports and allegations of links to the families associated with some of the ISIS brides around the enslavement of Yazidis, a group of whom live now here in Australia, having fled those associated with ISIS”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said it would be a “tricky operation” to ensure the returning children were not radicalised as he said they deserved the chance at a new life.
“They didn’t make the decision to travel to Syria and the Middle East, and we’ve got an obligation to ensure that they’re safe,” he said.
Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the expected return of several ISIS brides into the state represented “an unacceptable threat to community safety and social cohesion”.
“The Victorian Liberals and Nationals believe any adult who has left Australia to align themselves with a barbaric terrorist organisation should not be welcomed back into our state,” Wilson said.
Gamel Kheir, secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, has branded the political debate over the return of 13 women and children with Islamic State links to Australia “disgusting”.
“I am not a defender of them, but I am a defender of the rule of law,” he said. “Throw them in jail if they are guilty, but they are Australian citizens and the law shouldn’t apply selectively. They have a right to return home.”
Kheir said the children who had been stranded in camps in northern Syria had played no part in where they ended up and deserved to be rehabilitated and start a new life in Australia.
“It is disgusting that politicians are seeking to make political mileage out of this. This issue has become an Islamophobic free-for-all,” he said.
Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.
