Trump administration seeks Syria repatriations as Australia turns back nine
The Trump administration said it is in active communication with countries to help repatriate people stranded in syria, as four Australian women and nine children were turned back before reaching Damascus international airport. Syria’s information ministry said the group had come from al-Roj camp and was still awaiting a solution after the Australian government refused to receive them.
al-Roj camp and Damascus
The four women and nine children left al-Roj camp in north-east Syria last Friday and traveled by road to Damascus in the custody of the Syrian government. Syrian officials said the group never made it to the airport. A senior administration official said, “The Trump administration is in active communication with nations that have citizens in Syria, specifically within the Roj camp, to facilitate repatriation of both those with and without Isis affiliation.”
Australia’s refusal has left a wider group in the camp. A further seven Australian women and 14 of their children remain in al-Roj camp, and most Australians there have been held for more than six years. None of the Australians has been charged with a crime, while one woman has been issued with a temporary exclusion order seeking to prevent her return to Australia.
Anthony Albanese’s refusal
The Albanese government has refused to repatriate Australian women and children detained since the fall of Islamic State, and it has warned returnees they could face the “full extent of the law” if they committed an offence. Syria’s information ministry said the families were turned back because “the Australian government had refused to receive them.”
The United States funds the camp’s operation, and it describes al-Roj camp as an “incubator for radicalisation.” The camp is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which leaves the stranded Australians in a system where access, custody and any return all run through separate governments.
The next move sits with Canberra and the countries the Trump administration says it is now pressing to take back their citizens. For the Australian women and children already turned back from Damascus, the immediate question is whether that push produces a route out of Syria or leaves the group waiting in place again.
