Australian police on Friday charged two women tied to the Islamic State extremist group with slavery-related offences after they returned to the country overnight from Syria. The two women, aged 53 and 31, had been detained in a refugee camp in Syria for more than seven years before their repatriation and were arrested at Melbourne airport on Thursday upon arrival.
Authorities have charged the women with crimes against humanity, including counts of owning and using a slave while in Syria. Those charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Counter Terrorism Stephen Nutt said in a statement: "This remains an active investigation into very serious allegations."
Police say both women travelled to Syria in 2014 with their families and that investigators allege a female slave was kept at their homes. Authorities could not immediately contact the women or their lawyers.
In a separate case on the same day, a 32-year-old Australian woman was detained at Sydney airport and charged with terror-related offences, including allegedly joining Islamic State. The charges against her carry a maximum jail term of 10 years. She is due to appear before a Sydney court on Friday. Police say she travelled to Syria in 2015 to join her husband, who had earlier left Australia and joined ISIS.
The government had said earlier this week that four women and nine children planned to return from Syrian camps without official assistance. Officials have declined to provide details on the status of the fourth woman or the children.
The arrivals have intensified scrutiny of the centre-left government, with critics faulting it for not doing enough to stop the return of nationals linked to extremist groups. Government officials have pushed back, saying there are "very serious limits" on the powers authorities possess to prevent Australian citizens from re-entering the country.
Following the territorial defeat of ISIS, many relatives of suspected fighters were detained in Syrian camps. In January, the United States began relocating detained ISIS members out of Syria after the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had been guarding about a dozen facilities holding fighters and affiliated civilians, including foreign nationals.
Australia previously repatriated four women and 13 children from Syrian camps in 2022. Media reporting has indicated that roughly 21 Australians remain in the al-Roj camp, though officials have provided limited public detail on current numbers or the status of individual cases.
What happened
- Two women, aged 53 and 31, returned from Syria and were arrested in Melbourne on charges including owning and using a slave; charges carry up to 25 years in prison.
- A separate 32-year-old woman was arrested in Sydney on charges related to joining Islamic State; those charges carry up to 10 years imprisonment.
- Officials indicated four women and nine children intended to return from Syrian camps; details about the fourth woman and the children remain undisclosed by authorities.
Context provided by authorities
Police statements and government comments stressed that the matters are under active investigation and highlighted limits on what authorities can do to prevent citizens from re-entering Australia. The return of nationals from Syrian detention camps has been an ongoing policy and security challenge for Australian officials.