Seven women and 14 children have arrived in the Syrian capital, as the final Australians to depart the al-Roj detention camp for families of jailed and killed Islamic State fighters.<\/p>\n
Western Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, who has been involved in coordinating their return, confirmed the 21 people had arrived in Damascus, after the ABC exclusively revealed they had left al-Roj camp on Thursday afternoon local time<\/a>.<\/p>\n What awaits the IS-linked families in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n Women and children linked to the Islamic State terrorist group have arrived in Melbourne and Sydney. Here’s who they are and what awaits them.<\/p>\n “I just don’t know how many of them are going to arrive in Australia,” Dr Rifi said.<\/p>\n He did not confirm reports the group would return to Australia this month.<\/p>\n Next steps uncertain<\/p>\n The ABC understands the federal government has not been notified that flights have been booked at this stage, adding to the uncertainty around the timing of their next steps.<\/p>\n In February, the Australian government issued a Temporary Exclusion Order (TEO) to block the return of one woman in the group on security grounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n The woman left the camp with the other Australians, even though there may be a barrier to her returning to Australia.<\/p>\n “She is discussing [the TEO]. It is a matter for the lawyers to make that decision [about her next steps], it’s not for me,” Dr Rifi said.<\/p>\n Australian women and children leave Syrian IS camp<\/a><\/p>\n The ABC has seen buses carrying the group, which left the al-Roj camp on Thursday afternoon, local time.<\/p>\n “If [the Australian government has] good reasons to do that, that’s fine by us.”<\/p>\n The group’s departure from al-Roj follows the return of four women and nine children from Syria to Australia earlier this month.<\/p>\n They had left the squalid camp in Kurdish-controlled territory in late April, and waited about a fortnight in Damascus before boarding flights to Qatar and onwards to Melbourne and Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three of the women in that group were arrested and charged by federal police the moment they set foot on Australian soil.<\/p>\n Two are charged with slavery offences, while the other is charged with joining a terrorist organisation and travelling to a declared terrorist hotspot.<\/p>\n Speculation spread through al-Roj that the arrests may have prompted the remaining women to reconsider their travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n No help from Australian government<\/p>\n “I can tell you that they’ll face the same consequences as the first group, which is if there are any crimes that they’re accused of, they’ll be taken into custody and treated with the full force of the law,” Cabinet Minister Tanya Plibersek told the ABC.<\/p>\n Dr Rifi said neither group had received any help “whatsoever” from the Australian government, and had instead relied on assistance from lawyers, humanitarians and the Syrian government.<\/p>\n “If the [Australian] government decided to do it or provide some help, it would have been a lot easier for us. Not so expensive, not so traumatic for us to bring them, all of them, in here,” he said.<\/p>\n “But, unfortunately, they’re being hands-off, no assistance whatsoever. None whatsoever. And that’s why we struggled.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We had to do it ourselves, we have to finance it ourselves, and we have to put at times everyone else’s interests before our self interest.”<\/p>\n Opposition leader Angus Taylor said the government “should be doing all it can to stop these people coming back to Australia”.<\/p>\n “They turned their back on our country to support a terrorist organisation, one that has been guilty of extraordinary atrocities, including against Australians,” he said.<\/p>\n Legal experts have repeatedly rejected such claims, arguing there is no legal basis or power the Australian government can rely on to block a citizen returning home.<\/p>\n The Albanese government has insisted it is not helping the families return. But it has conceded it has obligations towards the group, including the issuing of passports.<\/p>\n Travel documents have been in the possession of the families since February, when the entire group of 34 Australians made their first failed attempt to leave al-Roj<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dr Rifi said he believed there would be a greater security risk to Australians if the families remained in the Middle East.<\/p>\n “We were concerned about the kids in the camp growing up in the camp into adulthood and then coming to Australia after spending such a long time in a very volatile atmosphere in the camp, or in the Middle East, and being under the influence of people who would mean harm to all Australians,” he said.<\/p>\n