Australian families in convoy from Syrian camp warned they will be attacked unless they turn | Australia news

Syrian government officials alerted a convoy of Australian families Islamic State fighters they would be shot at if they continued on to Damascus last week, a Kurdish official said.

A group of 34 Australian women and children, assisted by their relatives, left al-Roj detention camp on Monday 16 February under a Kurdish military escort, with the aim of reaching Damascus before flying to Australia.

But about 50km from the camp, Kurdish security forces received a call from the government in Damascus telling them the convoy would be “hit” if it tried to reach territory controlled by Syrian government forces. Kurdish forces de facto control much of the northeast Syriaincluding the area at the Iraqi border where al-Roj is located, and the convoy that was required to “cross” a checkpoint controlled by the Syrian government to reach Damascus.

“We were halfway to Qamishli (the largest Kurdish city in Syria) when my comrades told me that Damascus said that once they reached government lands they would strike them because the Australian government did not coordinate with them,” Çavre Afrin, an intelligence officer and the head of al-Roj camp’s security administration, told the Guardian.

She added that relatives of the families had brought documents from Australia for the entire group, which would allow them one-time travel, according to the papers she saw.

Spokesmen for the Syrian Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Information did not respond to a request for comment on the alleged threat to fire on the Australian convoy.

Separately, a Syrian official said the “issue stems from the absence of prior coordination with the Syrian government” and that Damascus only learned of the repatriation effort after families left the camp.

The official added whether they would be allowed to travel “will depend on the Australian government.”

The group of 11 women and 23 children is the wives, widows and children of suspected members of IS who traveled to Syria when the radical group controlled large parts of Syrian territory under its so-called caliphate. Most of the women claim that they either did not understand the situation in Syria or that they were forced to travel there – none have charged or appeared before a court.

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They have been held in detention camps guarded by Kurdish forces since at least 2019, after the territorial defeat of IS. Rights groups say their detention is arbitrary and that conditions in al-Roj are unfit for life, especially for children, pointing to the spread of disease in the squalid tent camp.

The aborted escape attempt left the Australians distressed and deeply shocked. Zahra Ahmad, a 33-year-old mother of three from Melbourne, collapsed on the ground and had what she described as a “seizure” when she was brought back to the camp. Her son, 14-year-old Mohammed, lost feeling in his hands for days after the brief release, and other children sob when told they were forced to return to the camp.

Many of the children have never seen the outside world before. They returned to find their tents dismantled and belongings gone – a procedure the camp administration says is standard when residents leave – but have since recovered most of their belongings and rebuilt their tents.

The families said they were increasingly afraid to stay in al-Roj amid an IS resurgence in Syria, as their repatriation effort could expose them to retaliation from more radical families in the camp.

Their attempt to return home sparked outrage in Australia and led to a wave of vitriol against the women. The Australian government has said it does not support the return of women and children, and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Sunday that the government was “actively making sure that we do nothing to help them“.

The Australian government cannot prevent Australian citizens from returning home of their own accord, except in the case of a temporary exclusion order, which can prevent an Australian citizen from entering the country for up to two years if they are considered a security risk. One of the Australian women issued a TEO, according to Burke.

The women repeatedly said they would be willing to stand trial when they returned to Australia.

Australia, under Scott Morrison as prime minister, repatriated eight orphans from north-east Syria in 2019.

Anthony Albanese’s government had repatriated four women and 13 children in 2022 but, in the face of political and media opposition, changed its stance and said it had no plans to repatriate the final group.

One female returnee was charged with entering a prohibited area, Raqqah province. Mariam Raad pleaded guilty and was conditionally discharged in a New South Wales court.

Last October two women and four children escaped the nearby al-Hawl detention campon their way across Syria to Lebanon, where they obtained passports from the Australian embassy. They returned to Australia on a commercial flight.

Government rhetoric against repatriations hardened even further. Albanese said last week that he “nothing but thinking for these people.”

The prime minister said he sympathized with the children – some of whom were born in the camp – but he said they were “put in that position by their parents”.

The federal opposition said on Monday it would seek to introduce legislation to help criminalize individuals re-entering Australia if they are linked to terrorist organisations, or if they have committed terror-related offences.

“We will take action and refuse people to come here who left Australia to support Islamic extremist terror overseas,” Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said.

Rights groups have repeatedly called on Australia to take back its citizens, saying the government has a legal obligation to repatriate stranded Australians – especially children.

“Instead of investing effort in ways to stop aid to innocent Australian children, politicians should be focused on finding ways to protect them,” Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler said on Monday.