Updated ,first published
Frustrated US state officials have condemned Australia’s reluctance to repatriate ISIS families as America pushes to close Syrian war camps.
In a letter from a US Department of State official, seen exclusively by this masthead, a policy analyst said the United States wanted to “press countries to repatriate, especially in light of recent developments in the region.”
“I see that the Australian government has dug in on its opposition to repatriating them from the camp,” the official wrote.
The email is from February, when an attempt to get the group out of the al-Roj camp was denied and they were turned back.
“I can only imagine how frustrating their return to Roj is,” the official wrote.
It comes as two sources close to the repatriation process confirmed that the United States has an interest in the repatriation process, with one source saying the US government wants to “close the camps.”
“They want to see the people there go home. The longer that camp is there, the more resources have to be spent on it,” they said.
They also confirmed that the Syrian government has supported the process, and was also invested in having the camp closed.
The source said the group of Australian women and children currently in Damascus have been “released” to their families there, and were in no rush to depart as they “are not being deported”.
They also confirmed that the group will probably fly in groups, as they were not one family unit.
The source said the group were feeling “trepidation” about the entire process due to the Albanese government’s “strong language” on the matter, and specifically, the indication they would be met by the “full force of the law”.
Both sources asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the situation.
In relation to the US’s interest in the matter, a government spokesman said: “We are not going to comment.
“We’ve been absolutely clear that the Australian government is not and will not repatriate people from Syria,” he said.
Three prominent Muslim bodies – the Australian National Imams Council, the Muslim Legal Network and the Lebanese Muslim Association – have all piled pressure onto the government to allow the group to return.
A cohort of four women and nine children, all of whom are Australian citizens, have secured tickets for return flights.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday refused to offer additional details about the group’s return, insisting that intelligence information should remain confidential, and reiterating that his government had offered no support.
The US, as this masthead reported in December, had been urging other countries to bring their own citizens home. However, a precondition of any US military repatriation of the Australians would be that they have current passports, and the Australian government had consistently refused to issue them until this year.
The US’s interest in repatriating the group, which it has framed as a move to rid the region of terrorist sympathisers as the Syrian government drops its hardline anti-US stance, may help the chances of the cohort returning to Australia.
Imam Shadi Alsuleiman, the president of the powerful Imams Council, said the women and children were “entitled to return home, regardless of the legal consequences they may face upon their return”.
“While we do not agree with their decision to leave Australia for Syria at that time, we strongly believe that children, in particular, should not be punished for the actions of their parents,” he said.
“These children deserve the opportunity to return home and rebuild their lives, like every other Australian child.”
The Imams Council is the central Islamic body in Australia and represents over 350 imams around the country.
At the same time the head of the Muslim Legal Network in NSW said that “return and repatriation is the only response that fully upholds Australia’s obligations under international human rights law.”
Wael Skaf, the president of the network, said that if the government continued to stand in the way of the group’s return, they would be “actively complicit in the unlawful detention and collective punishment of hundreds of Australians, most of them women and young children who do not find themselves in this position because of their own life choices.
“We should not allow fear and politics to drive a policy of offshoring our responsibilities. We must meet our international legal obligations, protect vulnerable Australians from all walks of life, and trust the strength of our institutions to manage risk,” he said.
Gamel Kheir, the secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs Lakemba Mosque, slammed the government’s response so far, saying the only reason the group have faced challenges in returning home is “because they’re Muslim”.
“I want the government, I want the opposition, I want every single human being to look at themselves and say, ‘What did these children do wrong? Why should they be abandoned?’”
The trio of Muslim groups form the largest pushback against the government’s combative stance on the group so far, with their intervention coming after the prime minister said the children were “victims of their parents’ bad choices, evil choices, to undermine Australia’s national interest”.
“My views have not changed with regard to people who went overseas and chose, chose to support ISIS rather than Australia, when ISIS had an objective of setting up a caliphate to literally attack democracies like Australia,” Albanese told a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra.
This is the second attempt by the group to return to Australia this year after they were turned back in February. They left al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria on Saturday. They had been detained there for seven years following the fall of the Islamic State caliphate.
A source close to the return process, which is not being facilitated by the government, confirmed to this masthead earlier this week that the women and children intended to fly out of Damascus soon.
Asked whether the cohort had obtained tickets, Albanese said: “Federal authorities – I have every confidence in the work that they do to keep Australia safe, and they continue to monitor these issues. But Australia is providing no support for this cohort.
“It’s probably best that security systems operate securely. Ours does and will continue to do so.”
In 2022, the Albanese government said it was incumbent on Australia to bring the group home to give them a chance at rehabilitation.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Albanese rejected the notion that he had a change of heart regarding the cohort, after he was read comments from 2019 in which he said children involved “have made no choices” regarding their travel to the Middle East.
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Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.
Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
