Australian women and children with ties to ISIS have returned from Syria, with arrests anticipated.

 A group of Australian women and children with ties to the extremist group Islamic State returned home on Thursday after spending years in a Syrian camp, with some reportedly facing arrest at the airport, according to Australian media..

On Wednesday, the Australian government announced that four women and nine children detained in northeast Syria plan to return to Australia, but will not be given any government support.

A woman and her child landed in Sydney on Thursday evening after traveling via Doha, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Police boarded the plane and took her into custody, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Another group arrived in Melbourne shortly afterward.

Local media said there was a heavy police presence at both airports in anticipation of their arrival.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s office did not ​respond to a request for comment on the group’s travel plans.

Australian ​Federal Police said earlier that some in the group could be arrested and charged on ‌arrival, ⁠while others might remain under investigation. The children are expected to enter community reintegration and support programmes.

Some Australian women travelled to Syria between 2012 and 2016 to join their husbands, who had allegedly become ISIS members.

Following ​ISIS’s territorial defeat in ​2019, many ⁠relatives of suspected fighters were detained in camps, including al-Roj in the northeast of the country where the latest ​Australian returnees were held, according to the ABC.

In January, the United States started relocating detained ISIS members from Syria following the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who had been guarding about a dozen facilities holding fighters and associated civilians, including foreigners.

The Australian government ​repatriated four women and 13 children from Syrian camps in 2022.

About 21 Australians remain in ​al-Roj, the ABC reported.