Australian authorities are preparing for the arrival of a group of ISIS brides and their children from Syria on Thursday evening, but the Prime Minister has refused to comment on how much monitoring them will cost taxpayers.

ISIS-linked women are due to arrive at Sydney Airport on flight QR908, while a larger contingent is scheduled to land in Melbourne later in the afternoon on flight QR904.

The group of 13 is made up of four Australian women and nine children, who departed the Al Roj camp in Syria last week.

Officers from the Australian Federal Police are expected to take some of the women into custody upon their arrival at the airport.

‘I will not flag how many individuals will be arrested, or when they’ll be arrested, to protect a number of our investigations,’ an AFP spokesperson said.

‘However, I will confirm these points: some individuals will be arrested and charged. Some will face continued investigations when they arrive in Australia.

‘And children who return in the cohort will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support, and countering violent extremism programs.’

When asked by the Daily Mail about the cost of monitoring these individuals, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to comment, reiterating the government line that authorities are not helping them.

Four Australian women and nine children, linked to ISIS, will arrive in Australia on Thursday evening (file)

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke (pictured) said the federal government has not facilitated their return to Australia

‘The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,’ Albanese said.

‘These are people who have made, what is, a horrific choice, to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and place their children in an extraordinary situation.’

He also failed to provide a response when asked if his government expects other Australian families to follow the group now that refugee camps are being closed in Syria.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had confirmed earlier on Wednesday that the federal government had not facilitated the return of the women and children.

‘The Government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group, which consists of four women and nine children,’ Burke said on Wednesday morning.

‘As we have said many times, any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.’

He added that the government has ‘long-standing plans’ to manage their return.

‘Our world-class law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them,’ he said.

‘ISIS brides’ is a reference to women recruited by the Islamic State and moved to Iraq or Syria to marry fighters and raise their children (pictured, members of Australian families believed to be linked to the Islamic State militants in Syria in February 2026)

When asked whether the government had taken steps to prevent the group’s return, Burke said there were ‘serious limits’ on its ability to stop Australian citizens from coming back to the country.

He also did not explicitly condemn the actions of Dr Jamal Rifi, a Sydney-based GP with ties to Burke, who is understood to have provided women in the Al Roj camp with passports earlier this year.

‘ISIS brides’ is a reference to women recruited by the Islamic State and moved to Iraq or Syria to marry fighters and raise their children.

Many of the women have spoken about being tricked into living in Syria, with some experts suggesting recruiters paint a utopian view of life with the terrorist group.

But AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said investigators will have looked at ‘someone’s state of mind, their intent, and their awareness and understanding of the situation they were in’ before their arrest.

‘That most definitely forms part of the extensive investigations that we have done and in fact goes to us being able to prove or make the allegations and place those charges,’ she told reporters.

A convoy of 34 ISIS brides and their children were ordered to return to the Al Roj refugee camp in February after being issued Australian travel documents and attempting to come home.

Syrian authorities did not allow the convoy to continue to the Syrian capital, Damascus, where they would have planned their trip.

The government previously warned Australians who came back from Syria who were found to have committed crimes overseas would be punished on return.

In September last year, two women and four children linked to Islamic State fighters returned to Australia after getting themselves out of Syria via Lebanon.

They had fled the Al-Hol detention centre located in northeast Syria.

The group was then issued Australian passports after security and DNA checks, with the department briefed three months earlier than the group intended to return.