A group of 13 women and children with alleged IS links has returned to Australia

A group of 13 women and children, with alleged links to former Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria, have returned to Australia, where authorities have confirmed some could be arrested.

They have been residents of Al Roj camp, also known as Roj camp, where Shamima Begum had also been living - the teenage girl who fled the UK for Syria in 2015.

Two flights, carrying a total of four women and nine children, landed at Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday.

Krissy Barrett, commissioner for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), said "some individuals will be arrested and charged".

Officers added they face potential criminal charges relating to their alleged time in the IS group's so-called caliphate, which spanned Syria and Iraq.

The children are expected to enter community reintegration and support programmes.

The group has been held in a refugee camp in northeast Syria for years following the collapse of IS, and in February, a group failed in an attempt to leave for Australia.

The Australian government had previously condemned the women for supporting IS militants and had refused to help repatriate them.

During an interview with ABC News earlier this year, Australian ‌Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hinted at potential consequences if people returned: "We want to make it clear... to the people involved that, if there are any breaches of the law, then they will face the full force of the Australian law."

Two Qatar Airways flights took off minutes apart from Doha bound for Australia, landing on Thursday in Melbourne first, followed by Sydney.

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Some Australian women travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016 to join their ⁠husbands, who had allegedly become members of ​IS.

Following IS's territorial defeat in ​2019, many relatives of suspected fighters were detained in ​camps, including Al Roj near the Iraqi border.

In January, the US began moving detained IS ⁠members out of Syria after the ​collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. They had ​been guarding around a dozen facilities holding fighters and affiliated civilians.

(c) Sky News 2026: A group of 13 women and children with alleged IS links has returned to Australia