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A top-secret spy mission to refugee camps in Syria has prompted a policy shift allowing stranded Islamic State brides and their children to return to Australia – overturning a years-long ban by the Australian government.
The women left Australia to fight with their husbands for the Islamist terrorist movement before their short-lived ‘caliphate’ collapsed in March 2019.
Most Australians who joined or tried to fight were either killed in action or placed in refugee camps.
The Australian government had a tough policy of denying those citizens entry – they deprived many of their passports under strict anti-terror laws.
But now intelligence agencies believe leaving the Australians in the squalid camps could pose a greater threat to national security than leaving them there, as their plight could be used to recruit more Australian Muslims to join terror organizations. Close.
As a result, 16 women and 42 children held in the al-Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border will be repatriated in the coming days and weeks after “risk assessments” in August and September, the Australian reported.
A top-secret spy mission to refugee camps in Syria has cleared the way for stranded Islamic State brides and their children to return to Australia – a year-long ban by the Australian government overturned (ISIS fighters pictured)
Most Australians who dared to join the fight or support the cause were either killed in action or fled to refugee camps (photo, al-Hol Syria refugee camp 2017)
The controversial move is likely to divide opinion in Australia.
It is clear that all those brought home will be subject to intense surveillance by security forces and some will be charged with terrorism, as it was illegal for many at the time to travel to Syria and Iraq.
“The Australian Government’s top priority is the protection of Australians and Australian national security advice,” a spokesman for Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said on the subject.
“Given the sensitive nature of the cases involved, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
Many women who fled Australia to marry or join ISIS fighters have been forced to leave.
One of those women was Mariam Dabboussy, a woman from western Sydney, who left middle-class life at the age of 22 with her 18-month-old baby with her 18-month-old baby to work in childcare for the war-ravaged shattered hell hole after she married Kaled Zahab in 2015.
The Australian government had a tough policy of denying citizens entry – many of their passports stripped under strict anti-terror laws (photo, al-Hol Syria refugee camp 2019)
Many women who fled Australia to marry or join ISIS fighters have been forced to leave (pictured, an Iraqi refugee in the al-Hol camp in 2017)
“It started out as a normal vacation,” Ms. Dabboussy previously told ABC’s Four Corners.
‘My husband had never left the country at the time. So it was the first time he agreed to take me abroad.
‘We had a very nice holiday planned. We went to Malaysia, took me to Dubai, we went to Lebanon.’
Ms Dabboussy was initially taken from Lebanon to a house in southern Turkey near the border with Syria.
From there she was driven to a dusty patch of land.
“There were other people there and there was … there was a man there,” she said.
“And he started telling us, ‘Run before they shoot, run before they shoot.’ And we didn’t know what was going on.’
Mariam Dabboussy was not a devout Muslim, but her life changed when she was 22 when she married Kaled Zahab (pictured). The woman who worked as a nanny and aid migrant went to the Middle East with her husband and their 18-month-old child in mid-2015
“I looked around, I thought, ‘What should I do?'” I’m in the middle of nowhere, I don’t even know where I am. There are gunshots. Now I’ve just started running.’
She didn’t get far as men put her in a car and took her to a house with a black flag of Islamic State.
“When I went into that house and I saw a flag, I saw a flag and I asked around,” said Mrs. Dabboussy.
‘Some women spoke very broken Arabic, they didn’t really speak. They were a little surprised that I didn’t know what was going on. Some laughed at me.
“I mean, along the way we actually found out that we had just been ripped off by the guys.”
Kamalle Dabboussy pictured with his daughter Mariam Dabboussy (right) and her daughters Aisha (left) and Fatema in al-Hawl camp in northeastern Syria
Ms Dabboussy and her three children are now being held in the al-Roj refugee camp and will be repatriated.
Her father Kamalle said they have not yet been formally notified of her return, but “look forward to more information from the government.”
“As always, we are ready to work with the government on the process,” he said.
“If true, this will give vulnerable children the chance to be protected and in line with what we’ve been asking for for almost four years now.”