BEIRUT (AP) 鈥� A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria that houses people with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants are stuck in because Australian authorities have refused to allow their return, Syrian officials said Wednesday.
Thirteen women and children from four families last week left , a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria’s capital.
An official at the camp said that the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.
In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their status, Syria’s information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that “the Australian government had refused to receive them.鈥�
They were turned back before reaching Damascus International Airport, the information ministry’s statement said.
鈥淭hese families are still awaiting a solution, which can only be achieved through coordination with the relevant international parties.鈥�
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Wednesday that 鈥渨e are providing no support for repatriation and no assistance for these people.鈥�
At a separate news conference in Beijing, Australia鈥檚 Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday said that her government has made 鈥渧ery clear that we are not assisting in their repatriation.鈥�
Syria’s information ministry said that the families, through a lawyer, had obtained passports that were delivered by an 鈥渋ndividual鈥� that it didn’t identify while they were still in northeastern Syria in an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
A Lebanese-Australian doctor, Jamal Rifi, previously told Australian media that he was helping to coordinate the repatriation effort. Rifi couldn’t be reached for comment.
A previous attempt to return 34 women and children to Australia from the camp in February was turned back by Syrian authorities.
Former IS fighters from multiple countries, along with their wives and children, were and detention centers in northeast Syria after the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.
The larger has now been closed down, and thousands of suspected IS militants previously held in Syria were transferred to Iraq by the U.S. military to stand trial there.
The moves came after fighting between government forces and the SDF in January. Government forces seized much of the territory formerly held by the SDF. Amid the chaos, many detainees fled al-Hol and some prisoners escaped from a detention center.
Australian Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.
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Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to this report.
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