A so-called “ISIS bride” has been issued with a return permit by the Australian Government after the expiry of the temporary exclusion order expired which had previously blocked her from re-entering the country.

Hodan Abby and her nine-year-old daughter are believed to be the final members of a cohort which has actively petitioned the Australian Government for repatriation from Syrian detention camps since 2019.

At least 16 ISIS brides have returned since 2022, including 10 in May alone, landing in Sydney and Melbourne.

Several have been charged with terror-related offences and crimes against humanity.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in February issued a two-year Temporary Exclusion Order against Abby, blocking her return on national security grounds.

She had travelled to the airport with the most recent group to return but was denied access to the flight she had booked.

However, Abby had recently applied for a permit to return — which under advice received by the Commonwealth Solicitor-General on Wednesday — couldn’t be refused but could be conditional.

The Western Sydney woman left her Australian home with a friend at age 18 and travelled to Syria in 2015 after telling their families they were going on holiday.

Her child, who is not subject to the exclusion order, suffers from significant disabilities caused by shrapnel wounds she sustained in Syria as a baby.

Mr Burke and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have repeatedly denied facilitating returns for the group.

Speaking on ABC RN Breakfast on Thursday, Mr Burke said the group had made “horrific, ugly decisions” to travel to the region as far back as 2014 during the ISIS caliphate.

Mr Burke acknowledged the public attention on those returning from the camps but reminded listeners that large groups had also come back under the former Liberal government.

“There have been people returning since long before we came to government, including 45 men who went there to fight, all of whom had returned before we came to office,” Mr Burke said.

Earlier this year, Lebanese-born Australian general practitioner Jamal Rifi from Sydney had travelled to the camps to aid the women with passports and travel documents.

Mr Rifi had been a supporter of Mr Burke in the 2025 Federal Election.

Mr Burke indicated that legally his hands were tied regarding her return because a formal request was made after the exclusion order had expired.

He, however, vowed that authorities were “ready” and there would be extreme surveillance to monitor her on home soil.

Mr Burke said the returning woman is subject to extreme communication restrictions, requiring her to provide 24 hours’ notice to the department before using any form of technology, including phones, email, social media, or the internet.

“We will have to know where she lives, where she works, where she studies, if she books a ticket to anywhere,” he said.

“There will be a very high level of scrutiny and surveillance and we have gone absolutely to the legal limit that we’re able to.”

Abby could face up to two years in jail if she breaches the reporting conditions.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor accused the Prime Minister of “rolling the welcome mat out for ISIS terrorists” in Parliament on Thursday, claiming it could have done more to stop their return.

He accused the cohort of abandoning Australia and supporting an “evil death cult” and steeping their children in a “monstrous ideology”.

“This Government has again done nothing to stop terror coming through the door,” he said.

“The Albanese Government said it ‘couldn’t do anything’ — what a lot of codswallop. It chose to do nothing. This Government has deliberately turned a blind eye to Islamist extremism in this country.”

The Liberal leader said it “fails the security test, fails the fairness test, fails the values test, and fails the pub test”.

Mr Albanese responded to insist that all members in parliament rightly opposed “ISIS and terrorism” in Australia.

Shadow defence minister James Paterson described Mr Burke’s excuses for being unable to block the woman’s return as a “rather tortured explanation”.

“It was a rather tortured explanation from the Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke, about why this wasn’t his fault,” Senator Paterson told Sky News.

“The bottom line is the Albanese Labor Government has issued a return permit to a member of ISIS, an affiliate of ISIS, to return to our country who was previously blocked from returning to our country.

“This is a Government which has failed at every turn when it comes to the management of these so-called ISIS brides, really just ISIS members, who left our country to join an abhorrent terrorist organisation that viciously persecuted, murdered, raped and tortured people.”

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam said it was ironic that the permit was “being sorted out” on the same night ASIO boss Mike Burgess told this annual threat assessment address that the terror threat level underestimated the true danger Australians face.