AFP investigating ISIS families brought back to Australia

Four wives of Islamic State fighters who were brought back to Australia from Syria with their children are now being ‘actively’ investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

Women and children who were brought back to Australia from a camp for Islamic State families in Syria are being investigated by police after passing an initial risk assessment.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has moved to allay community fears about the four women and 13 children extracted from the al-Roj camp in north east Syria and repatriated to NSW last month, confirming the cohort were being monitored and investigated for potential breaches of Australian law.

“We have active investigations right now on these matters,” Mr Kershaw told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday.

“Some of these may or may not be charged.”

Mr Kershaw said the returned Australian citizens had co-operated with police, and so far none had passed the threshold to be subjected to a terror control order from the courts.

Commissioner of Australian Federal Police Reece Kershaw. Picture: Martin Ollman

The AFP have revealed the group were being monitored and investigated within the existing budget and resources of the police force at this stage.

Mr Kershaw said it was not possible to give an “exact figure” on the cost every time an individual was monitored as that depended on the risk assessment of each individual case.

“I leave it up to police officers to have discretion and they’ll ask for resources,” he said.

“At the moment I’ve not had that request in relation to the women and children (brought back from Syria.”

Mr Kershaw said Operation Ammersoyen-Alsunga had been established to assist with the repatriations.

“The individuals who recently returned to Australia will continue to be assessed by the AFP and our partners through our Joint Counter Terrorism Teams,” he said.

The families were brought back to Australia in October.

“I have confidence in the well-established framework that enables the AFP to respond and manage extremist threats in Australia, including our Community Liaison Teams, which will work with community leaders to support these returned individuals.”

Coalition of Assyrian Parties in Australia secretary Jacqueline Georges, who has been outspoken about her community’s fears of living alongside the relatives of IS fighters, said there had been no engagement between federal or state police and her group.

Jacqueline Georges who is the Secretary of the Coalition of the Assyrian Parties Australia.Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I don’t know if they have spoken to other Assyrian parties or organisation, but as a coalition we haven’t received any consultation,” she said.

Ms Georges, who met with Opposition leader Peter Dutton and has requested a forum with Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, said the community wanted to know how security would be managed.

“I want assurances from the police,” she said.

Ms O’Neil slammed the opposition’s politicisation of the repatriations as “disgraceful” and said the same conditions applied now as when the former Coalition government brought back a group of orphan children from Syria in 2019.