‘Last resort’: government faces legal action to force repatriation of Australians from Syrian refugee camps

Seventeen women and nine children will take the government to court, arguing that Australia has ‘effective control’ of their detention and the power to set them free

Australian mothers and children held in a Syrian detention camp will take the Australian government to court in an attempt to compel the government to bring them home.

Seventeen Australian women and nine children – the wives, widows, and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters – held in the Roj camp in north-east Syria, will file a writ of habeas corpus in the federal court on Monday morning, arguing that Australia has “effective control” of their detention and the power to set them free.

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