National

IS brides accused of 'child abuse'

Feb 20, 2026

Women in a camp in Syria — The opposition says special powers should be used to keep a group of IS brides out of Australia. -AAP Image

A senior government minister has accused some of the Islamic State-linked women in Syria of child abuse, as the opposition demands the group be barred from returning home.

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A group of 34 women and children linked to Australians who travelled to the Middle East to fight for IS have been trying to travel home from a Syrian refugee camp in recent days.

Senior Labor minister Tanya Plibersek delivered some of the strongest criticism yet of the women who took their children to the Middle East during the rise of Islamic State.

"Taking children into a war zone like this is child abuse," she told reporters in Melbourne.

"It is important to understand the responsibility that these parents took in making this decision."

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed the women have been issued with Australian passports - generally a right held by all citizens.

But additional powers should have been used to reject the the women's passport applications, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said.

"There are powers to refuse passports, and the government has not answered the most basic questions about why those things are not being used, or to what extent they have sought to use them," he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

A two-year ban on entering Australia has been imposed on one of the women because of national security concerns, and government officials have said the group could face criminal charges if they return home.

The group is believed to be made up of the partners and children of Australian men, who travelled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS before the caliphate was toppled in 2019.

The government has repeatedly claimed it is not providing any assistance to the women and children, apart from its legal obligation to give them travel documents.

Asked about the opposition's demand to deny the group passports, senior minister Mark Butler said while the government was open to suggestions on how to deal with the situation, the provision could only be used in certain circumstances.

"The grounds are very specific and they're very tight and they're determined ultimately by our national security agencies," he told Seven's Sunrise program.

"I'm sure Angus Taylor knows that there are very strict constitutional limits on what any government, Labor or Liberal, is able to do in the area of citizenship and passports," Mr Butler said.