Aussie women and kids in ‘hideous conditions’ in Syria detention camp

The future of more than 30 Australian women and children who have been held in detention in Syria for four years is at stake as a federal-court case to win their freedom is launched.

Matt Tinkler from Save the Children. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Dozens of Australian women and children are living in “hideous and appalling” conditions in a Syrian detention camp and the Australian government has the power to bring them home, the Federal Court has heard.

Charity Save the Children kicked off its legal fight to repatriate 11 women former Islamic State brides and their 20 children in Melbourne on Tuesday, with barrister Peter Morrissey SC arguing that the government must move to return them to Australia or prove why it cannot.

“(Their) health and safety is compromised,” he said. “(Their) detention has endured for several years.”

The women and children have been detained in the Al-Roj camp in northeast Syria since the fall of Islamic State in March 2019. They are all Australian citizens, or are eligible to be, according to the charity’s opening statement and have not been charged with any offence.

Mr Morrissey described the situation as “stark and dire” and said living standards at the camp are “hideous and appalling”.

He said 17 Australian women and children were successfully repatriated on October 27 last year, which was “part of a broader repatriation effort” co-ordinated by the Home Affairs Department and should be seen as significant evidence the government could also secure the freedom of others.

As well, the authority controlling the camp – the Autonomous Association of North and East Syria – has not asked for any “quid pro quo” arrangement with the Australian government in exchange for releasing its citizens nor are they linked with any terrorist group.

Mr Morrissey said the authority was co-operating with the Australian government and had already agreed to facilitate repatriation.

On behalf of the commonwealth, barrister Craig Lenehan said the onus was on the charity’s legal team to prove the government had “control” or “at least de facto control over the liberty of the women and the children on the balance of probabilities”.

“We take from that merely being able to ask for a person’s release and even having the high hopes that request (could) succeed could never be enough in an Australian context to constitute control,” he said.

“The case is that there is an (arrangement) with AANES for the repatriation of the remaining women and children. We say there is a gaping absence of any documents you would expect to exist about an arrangement being struck almost a year ago.”

The commonwealth consular crisis and support division member within the Foreign Affairs Department, Kathleen Logan, said she managed the repatriation “logistics” of the Australian women and children who returned home in October last year.

She could not confirm nor deny the remaining Australian citizens completed DNA identity checks, passport checks or consented to returning to Australia.

Lawyers for Save the Children, who are all acting pro-bono on behalf of the women and children, will argue the court should make an order of “habeas corpus” – meaning they should order authorities to bring the women and children to court in Australia.

If the federal government cannot, it must prove why their detention is legal or explain why they cannot be released, according to the opening statement.

Last week, UN investigators condemned countries that had failed to repatriate their citizens from the Al Hawl and Al-Roj camps.

The chair of the three-member independent international commission of inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinherio said: “Their living conditions amount to cruel and inhuman treatment and outrages on personal dignity for an estimated 50,000 people, mainly women and children.”