Australia announced on 6 May 2026 that 13 of its citizens detained in northeast Syria over alleged ties to the Islamic State group are travelling home with no support from Canberra. The cohort departed Roj camp at grid reference 38S KF 36249 81984 (36.8470°N, 42.0420°E) in Hasakah governorate on 24 to 25 April and was transported by Syrian interior forces to Damascus International Airport, where flights to Australia have now been booked according to Reuters, AP, and Australia’s national broadcaster.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, addressing reporters in Canberra, said the federal government would not facilitate the return and acknowledged that constitutional limits constrain its ability to block citizens at the border. Burke said the cohort had made an appalling and disgraceful decision and added that any returnee suspected of criminal conduct would face the full force of the law without exception, language consistent across coverage by Reuters, AP, the Jerusalem Post and Al Arabiya.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirmed that the AFP has been preparing for these scenarios since 2015 under standing investigations into Australians who travelled to the Islamic State so-called caliphate. Barrett indicated some individuals will be arrested on arrival, others will remain under active investigation, and children will be referred to community reintegration and welfare programmes. SBS News reports that AFP investigations into the cohort include potential terrorism offences and crimes against humanity, including allegations of slave trading.

Roj camp sits in al-Hasakah governorate at grid reference 38S KF 36249 81984 (36.8470°N, 42.0420°E), inside territory administered by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The facility holds thousands of foreign women and children with alleged links to the Islamic State group, including the cohort of Australian families that has lived inside the wire for roughly seven years.

Camp director Hekmiyah Ibrahim, whose name is also rendered as Hakamiyeh Ibrahim in North Press Agency reporting, told SBS Kurdish that the women had hoped to leave for years and described the cohort as overjoyed at the prospect of starting a new life. North Press Agency reported the same day that the camp administration confirmed coordination with the Syrian transitional government to escort the families directly to Damascus, and noted there were no immediate plans for other Australians to follow.

After Syrian interior forces moved the group out of Roj in late April, the families were briefly stranded in Damascus while Australian authorities, the Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration worked through what SBS News described as a coordination breakdown. The Syrian government told the Associated Press during that interval that Canberra had refused to receive them. As of 6 May, the Reuters report carried by Al-Monitor confirms flights have been booked, with arrival expected within days.

The current departure follows a failed attempt in mid-February 2026, when 34 women and children from 11 Australian families were turned back from the same camp on the same route. Associated Press reporting at the time, carried by NPR, attributed the reversal to procedural problems flagged by Syrian authorities during the road journey toward Damascus. The 34 had also intended to fly out of Damascus airport at grid reference 37S BS 68972 99655 (33.4114°N, 36.5156°E) before the transfer collapsed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated at the time that Canberra would not repatriate the group. AP reporting noted that Australia issued a temporary exclusion order against one woman in the February cohort, using powers introduced in 2019 to prevent high-risk returnees from re-entering for up to two years. The same legal architecture is now in play for the 13 currently in motion, although Burke has not confirmed any active TEO against members of the new group.

Wider context for both the failed February transfer and the May departure includes the transition of camp control from Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces toward the Damascus-based interim government. SBS News reports the United States announced earlier this year it would pull back support for the Kurds, accelerating the handover. The April departure was the first major movement under the new arrangement and offers a baseline for how future transfers will be coordinated between Damascus, the Autonomous Administration and foreign governments whose nationals remain held in the camps.

Public reporting describes the cohort as women who travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016 to join husbands who allegedly became Islamic State members, plus children who in many cases were born inside the camps or arrived as infants. Hekmiyah Ibrahim’s account to SBS Kurdish stresses that several of the children were one, four or five years old when first detained, and have known little of life outside the wire.

On the prosecution side, Commissioner Barrett’s statement points to charges that may include terrorism offences under the Foreign Incursions and Recruitment regime in force from 2014 to 2017. That law made unauthorised travel to areas controlled by the Islamic State group, notably al-Raqqa province, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of ten years. The AFP framing suggests case-by-case assessment rather than blanket arrest, with intelligence files dating back more than a decade now being matched to faces stepping off the plane.

Two earlier government-assisted repatriations form the precedent set against this self-funded return. In October 2022, four mothers and 13 children were brought back. In 2019, eight children of two Australians killed inside the caliphate were repatriated under the previous Coalition government. The new departure is therefore the first significant Australian movement out of Roj since the 2022 operation and the first to occur without any Canberra-led extraction, with the families effectively buying their own seats on commercial flights.

Sources

• North Press Agency, “Australia says ISIS-linked citizens in Syria plan to return home”, 6 May 2026
• Reuters via Al-Monitor, “Australia says Islamic State-linked citizens in Syria camp plan to return home”, 6 May 2026
• Associated Press via NPR, “Police say Australian women with alleged IS ties face charges on return from Syria”, 6 May 2026
• SBS News, “Overjoyed: Al-Roj camp official describes Australian IS-linked families’ last days in Syria”, 6 May 2026
• Jerusalem Post, “Australia says Islamic State-linked citizens in Syria camp plan to return home”, 6 May 2026
• Al Arabiya English, “Australia says ISIS-linked citizens in Syria camp plan to return home”, 6 May 2026
• Associated Press via KPBS, “Police say Australian women with alleged IS ties face charges on return from Syria”, 5 to 6 May 2026
• Associated Press via NPR, “Australia won’t repatriate 34 women and children from Syria”, 17 February 2026
• Associated Press via Washington Times, “Australian women with alleged ties face charges on return from Syria”, 6 May 2026