The federal government is set to implement a rescue plan to bring dozens of Australian women and children back from detention camps in Syria.
The 16 women and 42 children are families of Islamic State members and have been held in al-Roj detention camp in northeast Syria near the Iraqi border.
A secret ASIO mission into Syria has cleared the way for the families to be repatriated to Australia, The Australian reported on Monday.
They have been held in detention for three and a half years following the fall of Islamic State in March 2019.
Some of the women say they were taken to the Middle East against their will.
Federal frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said it was important the repatriated children receive the support they need upon their arrival.
"We have about 40 Australian kids living in one of the most dangerous places on earth in a refugee camp," she told the Seven Network.
"Some of the women, the mothers, were taken there as little more than children themselves and married off to (Islamic State) fighters. Some of them were tricked, some of them were forced to go there.
"When they come back to Australia, it's going to be very important that the children, in particular, receive counselling."
The Labor minister said there would be an expectation that security organisations would stay in contact and monitor those repatriated.
The Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said it appeared the security situation had changed to allow for the repatriation after the reported mission.
But he added that anyone who had broken the law, such as going to declared zones, to which the Australian government had banned visits, should face prosecution.
"If they knowingly went to a declared area then they've broken the law," he told Sky News.
"If they have broken the law, yes they should be charged."
Mr Tehan called on the government to continually monitor the women and children and ensure no one has been radicalised.
"It's too early at this stage to tell whether the right procedures, measures, laws are going to be abided by," he said.
"Keeping Australians safe has to be the number one priority of any government."
Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said the government needed "to come down like a ton of bricks on any person who decides they want to engage in a foreign fight".
He added that it would cost "an awful lot of money per person per year" following the repatriation of the women and children.
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie questioned why the report had come out in the newspaper before the mission was complete.
"This is actually quite surprising by ASIO to say that they're going to do this when they haven't done it yet," she told the Nine Network.
She also questioned why the government hadn't been able to bring over Afghan interpreters facing prosecution by the Taliban for helping allied forces during the war.
"They seem to have given up on (them)," she said.
In 2019, then Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton played down the prospect of repatriation, saying some of the women had the potential "to come back here and cause a mass casualty event".
"They've gone willingly and or they are as hardcore as some of the male terrorists they've seen in Syria and Iraq," he told 2GB in October 2019.
The new Labor government, however, is working to return the women and children, with a spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil saying any decision on repatriation is informed by national security advice, the ABC reported on Monday.
"Given the sensitive nature of the matters involved, it would not be appropriate to comment further," the spokesman said.
Save the Children Australia chief executive Matt Tinkler has been campaigning for the women and children to be repatriated, and told the ABC it would be "welcome news'' if they were returned.
© AAP 2022