Federal police insist they are prepared to keep the community safe if the 34 partners and children of Australian-born Islamic State fighters are allowed back into the country, warning anyone who has committed a crime will face the full force of the law.
The opposition wants the entire group of so-called "ISIS brides" - who have been stuck in Syria since the fall of the caliphate in 2019 - to be blocked from entering Australia, arguing they could pose a security risk.
Pressed on whether the government had issued passports to the group, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said all citizens had a legal right to receive official travel documents.
"If anyone applies for a passport as a citizen, they are issued with a passport, in the same way that if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card," he told the ABC's 7.30 program on Wednesday night.
Asked if that was "a long way of saying yes", Mr Burke said he'd answered using the words he wanted to use.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had "nothing but contempt" for the parents who travelled to the Middle East and put their children at risk.
"We will do nothing to assist these people coming back to Australia," he told ABC Radio on Thursday morning.
Some of the women have claimed they were coerced into leaving Australia.
The Australian Federal Police has revealed at least 10 people who had returned from Syria have been charged with crimes since arriving back in the nation, including nine men and one woman.
"Where Australians returning to Australia have allegedly breached Australian law, they will be, where appropriate, and on a case-by-case basis, subject to law enforcement action," an AFP spokesperson said in a statement.
The government has blocked one of the women from returning home on security grounds, issuing them with a "temporary exclusion order" which allows it to block a person's entry to Australia for up to two years.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said if one person had been barred from entry, the rest of the cohort should also be kept out of Australia to protect the community from harm.
But Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said it was disgraceful the government wasn't doing all it could to bring the women and children home.
"These are Australian citizens. They need to be brought back, and the (security) concerns should be dealt with in Australia," she told ABC TV.
"These people have been left to languish in refugee camps for too long."
