Kurdish authorities hand over 34 Australians from Roj camp for transfer

Key developments

Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have released 34 Australian relatives of ISIL fighters from the Roj camp, handing them to family members who travelled to Syria and placing them on buses bound for Damascus under military escort. Roj camp director Hakmieh Ibrahim said the 11 families were the last Australians in Roj; she also reported about 2,201 people of roughly 50 nationalities still remain in the camp. The transfers come amid shifting control in the region after Syrian government forces seized much of the area, including the nearby al-Hol camp, from Kurdish-led forces.

The Australian government said it will not repatriate people from Syria proactively, stating security agencies are monitoring the situation and that anyone who returns and is suspected of crimes will face prosecution, with national security the overriding priority. Humanitarian groups warn that thousands of children and civilians in northeastern camps remain at risk and have urged countries to repatriate their nationals; high-profile detainees still in Roj include UK-born Shamima Begum, whose British citizenship was revoked, as reported by Al Jazeera