Tony Burke ‘taking advice’ from security agencies about Australian women and children in Syria seeking to return

The Guardian World

by Josh Butler

February 17, 2026

Temporary Exclusion Orders allow the home affairs minister to stop a person entering for up to two years, but there is a high bar for the powers Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Home affairs minister Tony Burke is “taking advice” from security agencies on whether Australian women and children in a Syrian detention camp should be temporarily banned from returning, but it is unclear how many in the cohort such an order would apply to. On Monday night, 34 Australian women and children – the wives, widows and children of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters – left from the al-Roj camp, in north-eastern Syria, after being released by Kurdish authorities for their expected repatriation to Australia. Continue reading...

Verticals

worldpolitics

Originally published on The Guardian World on 2/17/2026