MELBOURNE, Australia — The last Australian woman held in a Syrian camp for families of Islamic State group fighters has been given permission to return to Australia under strict conditions, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Thursday.
The woman and her nine-year-old daughter had planned to return to Australia in February with a group of Australian women and children held in the Roj camp, but was prevented from leaving by a temporary exclusion order.
Australia created the orders in 2019 to prevent defeated IS fighters from returning from the Middle East for up to two years. The woman is the only known target of such an order.
Burke said on Thursday his government could not legally prevent the 29-year-old former Sydney resident from returning any longer after her lawyers applied for a permit to return.
Police and security agencies would enforce strict conditions when she returns, including having to advise authorities where she lived, worked, studied and planned to travel to, Burke said.
She would also need to give 24 hours notice before using any form of telecommunications, Burke said.
“Even if you want to use a public phone, it’s 24 hours notice. Any social media, 24 hours notice on everything has to be given so that there will be a very high level of scrutiny and surveillance and we have gone absolutely to the legal limit that we’re able to,” Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Opposition lawmakers have criticized the government for not amending the law to prevent the woman’s return.
The government said she was issued with the exclusion order on national security grounds, but did not detail those grounds.
The woman’s lawyer, Moustafa Kheir, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Australian Federal Police have been investigating since 2015 the behavior of Australians who had traveled to the region where IS declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.
It is not clear whether the woman could be arrested on arrival in Australia. Three of four women who arrived in Australia with nine children on May 7 were arrested on arrival and charged with terrorism and slavery offenses. They have been refused bail and remain in jail.
The woman was an 18-year-old when she left Sydney for Syria in 2015.
