Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett says some individuals will be arrested and charged.

Australian police say that some members of a group of Australian women and children due to arrive in the country from Syria imminently will be arrested over alleged links to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

The 13 Australians — four women and nine children — are expected to return from Syria on Thursday evening local time, arriving at airports in Melbourne and Sydney.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told reporters on Wednesday that some members of the group would be taken into custody upon arrival, while others remain under active investigation. She added that the children would receive psychological support and participate in programmes focused on countering violent extremism and community integration.

The women and children had been living in the Roj camp in northeastern Syria.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke condemned the women for travelling to Syria and warned that anyone found to have committed offences would face prosecution.

“They made an appalling, disgraceful decision,” Burke said. “If any of these individuals find their way back to Australia, if they have committed crimes, they can expect to face the full force of the law, without exception.”

Burke said the Australian government had not assisted the group’s return, but acknowledged there were “very serious” legal limits on preventing Australian citizens from returning to the country.

Australian authorities have been investigating citizens who travelled to Syria to join ISIL since 2015, when the group was at its height and controlled large parts of the country and neighbouring Iraq.

Hundreds of Western women are believed to have travelled to Iraq and Syria during the peak of the group’s power. Among the most prominent cases was that of British national Shamima Begum, who was stripped of her UK citizenship in 2019 on national security grounds.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, Ben Saul, urged Australia to prioritise the welfare and protection of the returning women and children, while ensuring that any law enforcement action taken against individuals is “proportionate” and “justified”.