Australia bans a citizen with alleged IS hyperlinks from coming back from Syria : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F81%2Fa4%2F5ce7ebbf4d63bcf5ef098d9e5b2f%2Fap26047393956119.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F81%2Fa4%2F5ce7ebbf4d63bcf5ef098d9e5b2f%2Fap26047393956119.jpg" class="img" alt="Family members of suspected Islamic State militants who are Australian nationals board a van heading to the airport in Damascus during the first repatriation operation of the year, at Roj Camp in eastern Syria, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. Thirty-four Australian citizens from 11 families departed the camp." fetchpriority="high"/> Relations of suspected Islamic State militants who're Australian nationals board a van heading to the airport in Damascus in the course of the first repatriation operation of the 12 months, at Roj Camp in japanese Syria, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. Thirty-four Australian residents from 11 households departed the camp. Baderkhan Ahmad/AP/AP cover caption

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Baderkhan Ahmad/AP/AP MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia's authorities banned an Australian citizen with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group from returning residence from a detention camp in Syria, the most recent improvement within the case of fraught repatriation of households of IS fighters.

The lady was planning to affix one other 33 Australians — 10 ladies and 23 kids — and fly on Monday from Damascus, Syria, to Australia, Dwelling Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated Wednesday.

However the group was turned again by Syrian authorities to the Roj detention camp, on account of unspecified procedural issues.

The Australian authorities had acted on information that the group deliberate to go away Syria, Burke stated. He stated the lady, whom he didn't establish, had been issued with a short lived exclusion order on Monday and her attorneys had been supplied with the paperwork on Wednesday.

She was an immigrant who left Australia for Syria someday between 2013 and 2015, Burke stated, declining to elaborate on whether or not she had kids — although he typically blamed the dad and mom for the predicaments of their offspring stranded in Syria.

"These are horrific conditions which were introduced on these kids by actions of their dad and mom. They're horrible conditions. However they've been introduced on fully by horrific selections that their dad and mom made," Burke advised Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Burke has the facility to make use of short-term exclusion orders to stop high-risk residents from returning to Australia for as much as two years.

The legal guidelines have been have been launched to in 2019 to stop defeated Islamic State fighters from returning to Australia. There are not any public reviews of an order being issued earlier than.

Burke stated safety businesses had not suggested that any of the opposite Australians within the group warranted an exclusion order. Such orders cannot be made in opposition to kids youthful than 14.

Complicated messages at a cramped camp <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd1%2F22%2Ff88222064e55936a7751a38794c6%2Fap26047394114348.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd1%2F22%2Ff88222064e55936a7751a38794c6%2Fap26047394114348.jpg" class="img" alt="Family members of suspected Islamic State militants who are Australian nationals walk toward a van bound for the airport in Damascus during the first repatriation operation of the year at Roj Camp in eastern Syria, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. Thirty-four Australian citizens from 11 families departed the camp." loading="lazy"/> Relations of suspected Islamic State militants who're Australian nationals stroll towards a van certain for the airport in Damascus in the course of the first repatriation operation of the 12 months at Roj Camp in japanese Syria, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. Thirty-four Australian residents from 11 households departed the camp. Baderkhan Ahmad/AP/AP cover caption

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Baderkhan Ahmad/AP/AP On the Roj camp, tucked in Syria's northeastern nook close to the border with Iraq, the Australian ladies who had anticipated to journey residence refused to talk to The Related Press on Wednesday.

One of many ladies, Zeinab Ahmad, stated that they had been suggested by an lawyer to not speak to journalists.

A safety official on the camp, Chavrê Rojava, stated that relations of the detainees — who she stated have been Australians of Lebanese origin — had traveled to Syria to rearrange their return. They introduced short-term passports that had been issued for the would-be returnees, Rojava stated.

"Now we have no contact with the Australian authorities relating to this matter, as we're not a part of the method," she stated. "Now we have left it to the households to resolve."

Rojava stated that after the group had departed the camp to journey to Damascus, they have been contacted by a Syrian authorities official and warned to show again. The households have been "very upset" upon returning to the camp, she stated.

"We just lately requested that each one nations and households come and take again their residents," Rojava stated.

She added that Syrian authorities don't wish to see a "repeat of what occurred in al-Hol camp" — a a lot bigger camp, additionally in northeastern Syria that after housed tens of 1000's of individuals, principally ladies and youngsters, with alleged ties to IS.

Final month, throughout combating between Syrian authorities forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had managed al-Hol, guards deserted their posts and most of the camp's residents fled.

That raised considerations that IS members would regroup and stage new assaults in Syria.

The Syrian authorities then established management of al-Hol and has begun transferring its remaining residents to a different camp in Aleppo province. The Kurdish-led power stays in charge of Roj camp and a ceasefire is now in place.

The thorny situation of repatriating IS-linked overseas residents Former Islamic State fighters from a number of nations, their wives and youngsters have been detained in camps because the militant group misplaced management of its territory in Syria in 2019. Although defeated, the group nonetheless has sleeper cells that perform lethal assaults in each Syria and Iraq.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian ladies and youngsters from Syrian detention camps on two events. Different Australians have additionally returned with out authorities help.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday reiterated his place introduced a day earlier that his authorities wouldn't assist repatriate the most recent group.

"These are individuals who selected to go abroad to align themselves with an ideology which is the caliphate, which is a brutal, reactionary ideology and that seeks to undermine and destroy our lifestyle," Albanese advised reporters.

He was referring to the militants' seize of broad swaths of land greater than a decade in the past that stretched throughout Syria and Iraq, territory the place IS established its so-called caliphate. Jihadis from overseas nations traveled to Syria on the time to affix the IS. Through the years, that they had households and raised kids there.

"We're doing nothing to repatriate or to help these individuals. I feel it is unlucky that kids are caught up on this, that is not their determination, however it's the choice of their dad and mom or their mom," Albanese added.