SYDNEY: More than 30 Australian women and children living in “appalling conditions” in a Syrian detention camp launched court action on Tuesday to compel Canberra to bring them home.
Their case opened at the High Court in Melbourne, nearly a year after Australia repatriated the last group of four women and 13 children – the wives, sons, and daughters of vanquished ISIS fighters – from Syria.
Peter Morrissey, representing the charity Save the Children, which is advocating on behalf of these individuals, described their situation as grim and harrowing. He emphasized that Save the Children Australia is representing women and children who have not been charged with any crime but are enduring distressing and appalling conditions in detention. Morrissey asserted that their well-being, safety, and dignity are severely compromised by any reasonable standard, as they have been detained in these camps for several years.
Save the Children is petitioning the court for a writ of habeas corpus, which seeks to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and obligates the government to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before an Australian court. Mat Tinkler, the CEO of Save the Children Australia, expressed deep concern over the Australian government’s failure to repatriate these families despite numerous opportunities to do so.
He also emphasized the urgency of their return to safety, highlighting the abandonment of Australian citizens by the government as unfathomable.
The repatriation of Australian women and children from Syrian camps has been a contentious political issue in a nation historically known for its stringent immigration policies. These Australian citizens have been residing in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj detention camps in northeastern Syria, under Kurdish control, since the collapse of the ISIS “caliphate” in 2019.
