A Qatar Airways flight carrying four women and six children from Syria landed in Sydney at 5.34pm on Tuesday, bringing a new group of Australian-linked returnees into the country under a glare of political scrutiny. Their families were not at the airport.
A source close to the process said the women would most likely take up an offer of support and transport from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, though it remained unclear whether they would leave the airport with government help or exit through the public terminal. The arrivals came on the same day Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government could confirm seven women and 12 children from the Australian cohort in Syria had made plans to travel to Australia.
The landing adds another chapter to the return of families once associated with the so-called ISIS brides, a label that has shadowed the debate over how Australia should handle women and children linked to the Islamic State group. The planes touching down in Melbourne and Sydney did not include a mother who had been prevented from returning in February by a temporary exclusion order, despite a push by her family to challenge it in court.
That woman, now around 29, had remained at the Al-Roj Syrian refugee camp with her daughter, who has been left disabled by shrapnel wounds. She left her Sydney home at 18 in 2015 to marry an IS fighter in Syria, a decision that later became the basis for the exclusion order that would keep her out of Australia until February 2028 unless it is overturned.
The contrast between the women now arriving and the mother still stranded in the camp captures the politics of the issue. Burke’s confirmation that more women and children are preparing to travel suggests the process is not finished, even as the government has tried to draw a hard line around sympathy for the jihadist group.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sharpened that line in parliament, saying: “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy for ISIS.” The remark underscored the balance the government is trying to strike: allowing some Australians and their children home while insisting it holds no tolerance for the group they traveled to join.
For the women who landed in Sydney, the immediate question was practical rather than political. The source close to the process said the likely next step was support and transport from NSW Communities and Justice, but the uncertainty over whether they would use that assistance or move through the terminal publicly suggested the return was being managed case by case rather than as a single, visible operation.
The broader question is whether the returns will continue to unfold in pieces, with children and mothers arriving on separate flights and some women still stuck in Syria under exclusion orders. With seven women and 12 children already confirmed to have made plans to travel, the government is facing a process that is far from over, and each arrival is likely to reopen the same political fight over security, responsibility and how long Australia should keep these families at arm’s length.
