‘Beggars belief’: Coalition call for government to intervene in return of second group of ISIS brides

The Coalition has called for the Government to intervene to prevent the return of a second cohort of ISIS-linked women and children expected to touch down in Australia within days.

Shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam said temporary exclusion orders should be placed on the group if Australian officials already suspect the group have committed serious terrorists and humanities offences.

It comes as authorities swooped on a group of 13 who touched down in Sydney and Melbourne earlier this month, charging three women with serious crimes.

Two of the women faces charges of crimes against humanity for alleged enslavement, while the third was charged for entering a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS.

According to reports in The Australian, a second cohort of six women is expected to arrive as early as next week.

The group is among 34 women and children who have been attempting to return from northern Syrian detention camps after travelling to the region as far back as 2014 during the ISIS caliphate.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and a string of Labor MPs have insisted the Australian Government isn’t helping with their repatriation and don’t want them to return to Australia.

However, Senator Duniam on Wednesday said the Government should be doing more to prevent their return.

“I mean the idea that these people came back, and as soon as they landed were laid with charges that frankly would scare a lot of people — charges related to slavery, crimes against humanity, terror related offences,” Senator Duniam told Sky.

“They’re not shoplifters, they’re not people who didn’t pay a parking fine. These may be serious criminals if these charges are proven.

“And the fact that there was a brief of evidence available to authorities to arrest these people on arrival yet it wasn’t enough to apply a temporary travel ban to revoke a travel document like a passport is beggars belief.

“How on earth can we stand by? They are the Government. They can do something about it. I don’t buy this story that they’re running, that they can’t stop them from coming back. They can and they could.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the women had “turned their back on Australia” and should be barred from returning to the country.

“The Government should be doing everything they can to prevent that from happening. I’ve said that from the start,” he said.

“These are people who left our country behind to support a terrorist organisation. A terrorist organisation that has committed extraordinary brutality, including on Australians.

“I’ve heard from a number of those Australians and this is an organisation that is amongst the worst we have ever seen. These people left Australia, left our shores, turned their back on Australia to support that organisation.”

Speaking on Perth radio on Wednesday, Mr Albanese insisted that his Government wasn’t helping the group return and vowed that they would be met with the “full force of the law” if authorities had evidence to arrest them on their return.

“We are not providing any assistance and I note that on the last journey back there was an ABC person on the plane. There wasn’t a government person on the plane because we weren’t providing any assistance and won’t,” the PM told ABC.

“If there have been any breaches of Australian law, they will face the full force of the law which is what happened to people when they arrived back just a couple of weeks ago.”