A relieved father has welcomed his daughter and grandchildren home as the first ISIS families who have returned to Australia in more than three years have landed in Sydney.
Four women and their 13 children arrived on a repatriation flight on Saturday after being taken from an Islamic State family camp in Syria.
The group included former childcare worker Mariam Daboussy from western Sydney – who was tricked into traveling to Syria to become the wife of an ISIS fighter – and their three children.
“Today I would like to take this opportunity to simply rejoice in the return of my daughter and grandchildren. It was an amazing day,” said her emotional father, Kamalle Dabboussy.
‘I’ve just come from visiting my daughter and grandchildren. They’ve had a long, drawn out journey home, they’re tired, they’re fine. The children open gifts and toys are the ones awake anyway.
“It’s hard to put into words what you felt at that point, but intense joy.”
Kamalle Dabboussy with his daughter Mariam and their daughters Aisha (left) and Fatema in the al-Hawl camp in northeastern Syria
The 17 Australians were driven 30km from the al-Hol and al-Roj camps in the northeast of the country across the border with Iraq, where they were flown to Sydney International Airport.
The women, who are wives and widows of IS fighters, are now in an undisclosed location as they continue to be interrogated by Australian authorities.
The operation to bring them back has involved Australian officials and the Syrian Democratic Forces, with the most recent repatriation of Australians in July 2019 involving two groups of orphans.
Mr Dabbousy had been urging the government for years to bring his daughter and her children back to Australia.
He said he hopes his family will live with him, but they are still waiting to hear what controls authorities will implement, including shackles, curfews or surveillance.
He said the four women posed no “threat to Australia” and continued to cooperate with law enforcement, aware they could potentially be charged over suspected crimes.
“They have been thoroughly assessed and screened by security agencies and they have advised them to come home, they are advised not to pose a threat,” he said.
Mariam Dabboussy was not a devout Muslim, but her life changed at 22 when she married Kaled Zahab (pictured). The former childcare worker and migrant worker went to the Middle East with her husband and 18-month-old child in mid-2015
Pictured: Mariam Dabboussy claims she was tricked into traveling to Syria by her husband
“The men went and took the women with them. The men are either dead or in prison and the woman was then left behind and caught.
“There is no evidence my daughter joined any such organization and that is certainly my understanding. And in private conversations I’ve had with law enforcement, so is their understanding.
In a statement, the women expressed their gratitude for their safe return and apologized for the trouble their ties to Islamic State caused.
“We are deeply grateful to be back home in Australia with our children,” the women said in a statement.
“We would like to express our regrets for the troubles and injuries we have caused, especially to our families.
“We are excited for the opportunity to rebuild our lives as part of the Australian community.”
The women and children were removed from Syrian camps (one pictured) for ISIS families and then driven to Iraq where they were flown to Sydney
Pictured: ISIS wives and children in one of the camps in the north of the country
Ms. Dabboussy married Kaled Zahab in 2011 at the age of 22. In mid-2015, she traveled to Lebanon with her husband and 18-month-old child, only to be “tricked” into going to Syria.
Zahab was killed in a coalition airstrike three months later and was forced to remarry twice more before finding herself in a camp with her three children.
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said the women had been cleared to return home after an individual assessment by the security services.
“The focus at all times has been the safety of all Australians as well as the safety of those involved in the operation,” she said.
Her opposition colleague Karen Andrews blasted the move.
“It is inexcusable that the Albanian government’s actions are putting Australian lives at risk… the risk that is now in our Australian communities here,” she said.
Earlier this month, the Albanian government confirmed the rescue plan, with the first people to be removed listed as the most vulnerable of those being held.
The federal government worked with Kurdish authorities on the extraction, which reportedly involved DNA testing the individuals to prove they were Australian citizens.
Australian intelligence services believe leaving Australians in filthy camps could pose a greater threat to national security than bringing them back, as their plight could be used to recruit more Australian Muslims to join terrorist organizations
The women and children were removed from al-Roj camp near the Iraqi border in an operation involving Australian officials and the Syrian Democratic Forces
Most children were born in Syria, which means they will be seeing Australia for the first time.
The group have been taken to an unnamed hotel in Sydney and the NSW Government is providing them with support services to help their integration into the community.
Save the Children leader Mat Tinkler said the children now have hope but that people should not lose sight of the approximately 30 remaining women and children who still need to be brought home.
“We cannot guarantee their safety unless they are here in Australia,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the safety of Australians is always paramount and the government will continue to act on national security recommendations.
“We will always act to ensure the safety of Australians.”
Who is Mariam Dabboussy?
Mariam Dabboussy was not a devout Muslim but her life changed at the age of 22 when she married Kaled Zahab.
The woman, who had worked as a childcare worker and migrant worker in Sydney, went to the Middle East with her husband and 18-month-old child in mid-2015.
Ms Dabboussy traveled to Lebanon with her husband only to be “tricked” into going to Syria, she said.
“It started out as just a normal holiday,” Ms Dabboussy said.
“My husband had never left the country at the time. So it was the first time he had agreed to take me abroad.
‘We had planned a really nice holiday. We went to Malaysia, took me to Dubai, we went to Lebanon.’
Ms Dabboussy was first taken from Lebanon to a home in southern Turkey near the Syrian border.
From there she was driven to a dusty patch of land.
“There were other people and there was… there was a man,” she said.
“And he started telling us, ‘Run before they shoot, run before they start shooting.’ And we didn’t know what was going on.
“I looked around and thought, ‘What should I do?’ I’m in the middle of nowhere, I don’t even know where I am. There are shots. Now I just started walking.’
She didn’t get far, men loaded her into a car and took her to a house on which a black IS flag was hanging.
“When I walked into this house and I saw a flag, I saw a flag and I kind of asked around,” Ms Dabboussy said.
“Some women spoke very broken Arabic, they didn’t really speak. They were kind of surprised that I didn’t know what was going on. Some of them laughed at me.’
The man Ms Dabboussy was married to is now dead after being killed by a coalition airstrike three months later.
The mother of three has had to remarry twice since then.