A 19-strong group of women and children linked to Islamic State are expected to face charges when they land in Australia on Tuesday night, as counter-terrorism teams shore up plans for their return.
Four women and six children are due to land in Sydney at 5.30pm on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha, while two women and seven children are scheduled to land in Melbourne at 5.15pm.
Some of the children are reportedly dealing with medical complications, including one child previously reported to have suffered shrapnel injuries.
On Tuesday morning, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed that seven women and 12 children had made plans to travel from Syria to Australia after spending years in a Syrian refugee camp.
‘The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,’ Burke said in a statement.
‘These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation.
‘Any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.’
Burke said intelligence agencies had been preparing since 2014 for the possible return to Australia of people linked to the terrorist group Islamic State.
Nesrine Zahab is expected to be among the four women and six children who are due to land in Sydney at 5.30pm on Tuesday
Counter terrorism teams are said to have shored up plans for the group’s return, with a further two women and seven children scheduled to land in Melbourne at 5.15pm
A major police operation will reportedly be held at Melbourne Airport tonight after chaos erupted at the airport on May 7 (pictured) when three ISIS brides and their children landed
Police said that ‘operational arrangements have been put in place’ for their return.
ISIS bride Hodan Abby, has been banned from returning to Australia on national security grounds under a government-issued temporary exclusion order and is understood to have remained overseas with her child.
Abby’s family has hired Birchgrove Legal principal solicitor Moustafa Kheir to fight a federal exclusion order due to remain in place until February 2028, after the western Sydney woman was prevented from returning to Australia.
The western Sydney woman, who travelled to Syria in her teens in 2015 and later became a mother, was blocked from boarding a flight to Australia this week.
After fleeing her western Sydney home at 18 with a friend, Ms Abby spent years trapped in Kurdish-run camps with her daughter, who sustained shrapnel injuries to her head, hip and back.
The young girl, aged nine, now suffers from disabilities and speech and movement impairments.
Other members of a cohort of 19 women and children with links to the Islamic State who left the al-Roj camp on Monday are due to land in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon.
The group originally travelled to the Middle East with men who sought to fight for Islamic State before the caliphate was toppled in 2019.
Among those expected to land in Sydney are Aminah, Nesrine and Sumaya Zahab.
Aminah is the mother of maths teacher-turned-Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who died in an air strike in 2018.
She told the ABC in 2019 that she and her husband Hicham were tricked by their son into going to Syria, describing herself as a ‘clueless parent’ who let her children ‘rule (her) life.’
Sumaya is Aminah’s daughter and the sister of Muhammad Zahab. She travelled to Syria in 2014.
Nesrine, who entered Syria from Sydney in her early 20s, previously told Four Corners she was holidaying with family in Lebanon when she unwittingly entered the war zone.
Aminah Zahab, who said her son convinced her and other family members to go to Syria, is expected to land in Sydney
Nesrine Zahab’s husband Ahmed Merhi (pictured) was sentenced to death in Iraq over his involvement in IS
Kirsty Rosse-Emile, crying while telling the ABC she was tricked into going to Syria
She then married Ahmed Merhi – a Sydney-born Islamic State terrorist who was sentenced to death in Iraq – because she claimed she thought it would give her the best chance of survival.
Another Sydney woman who left Australia for Syria is Hodan Abby, who sought to become a ‘jihadi bride’ when she was a teen.
It is unclear whether she is the woman subject to the exclusion order.
Other names linked to the latest cohort include Melbourne woman Kirsty Rosse-Emile who married IS fighter Nabil Kadmiry when she was 14 years old.
She previously claimed she was tricked into entering the warzone.
However, her former housemate Sara* – whose identity has been concealed – has previously told the Daily Mail she knew exactly what she was doing when she flew to Syria to pledge allegiance to IS.
Ms Rosse-Emile was known by her Islamic name Asma at the time.
‘Asma turned around and said ‘I don’t want to go to school, I want to go and make bombs’,’ Sara recalled.
Janai Safar is pictured after being arrested arrested at Sydney Airport on May 7
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, was charged with slavery offences after returning to Australia on May 7
It comes just weeks after four ISIS brides and their nine children returned to Australia on May 7 after spending seven years at the same camp in Syria.
Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, were charged with enslavement and using a slave after landing in Melbourne.
Abbas was also charged with possessing a slave and engaging in slave trading.
Her other daughter Zahra Ahmad, 33, is not accused of committing any crimes.
Janai Safar, 32, landed in Sydney and was charged with entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and with joining the terrorist organisation.
