Australian court rules gov't has no legal obligation to bring back citizens from Syria detention camps

ANKARA

A court in Australia has ruled that Canberra has no legal obligation to bring back citizens from Syrian detention camps, local media said on Wednesday, referring to widows and wives of Daesh/ISIS militants and their children.

The Federal Court dismissed an appeal by Save the Children, a non-governmental humanitarian organization for children, on Tuesday to repatriate women and children detained in north Syria, the IB Times reported.

"If the government had the political will, repatriation of ISIS brides and their children from Syria could be a relatively straightforward exercise," the daily said, citing the court’s ruling.

According to media reports, approximately 40 Australian women and children are currently detained in northern Syria after their husbands, who were Daesh/ISIS militants, were either killed or are currently in prison.

In 2022, Australia repatriated over a dozen women and children from the Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria.

About 60 women and children have been trapped and detained in al-Hol and Roj camps since the defeat of the ISIS/Daesh terrorist group in March 2019.

Most of these women were sent to Syria at a young age, where they married Australian terrorists.

Since 2019, more than 25 countries have repatriated citizens from Syrian detention camps.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid