Australia charges woman who returned from Syria with joining Islamic State

A woman with links to the Islamic State group who returned to Australia from Syria last year has been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and entering a declared conflict zone, police have said.

The 34-year-old arrived in Australia in September along with another woman, police said, and was to appear in a Melbourne court on Thursday.

The announcement comes after two groups of women and children arrived in Australia this month after spending years in the al-Roj camp in north-east Syria where families of IS fighters have been held since 2019.

Three of the women who returned this month also face various charges including crimes against humanity.

Both offences with which the 34-year-old was charged carry maximum penalties of up to 10 years in prison, Hilda Sirec, federal police assistant commissioner, told reporters.

She said the woman, identified by local media as Rayann El Houli, travelled to Syria in 2013 or 2014 and was detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held in Syria's al-Hawl camp.

Sirec said all the adult women who had arrived back in Australia recently were being investigated, adding: "A period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased."

The group who arrived in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday were understood to be the last Australians in the al-Roj camp, with other Australians having returned in previous months and years.

A mother and daughter - Kawsar Ahmad and Zeinab Ahmad - who arrived in Melbourne as part of a group at the beginning of the month have been charged with enslavement and using a slave, with the mother also accused of slave trading.

Another woman who arrived in Sydney, Janai Safar was charged with entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and joining IS.

The women and children have been the subject of heated political debate in Australia, with the government saying it had given them no help to return and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insisting "if you make your bed, you lie in it".

Advocates argued Australia must uphold their right to return and that the children in particular should be supported and not made to pay for the decisions of their parents.