Thirty-six women and children stuck in Syria say they would agree to be put under anti-terrorism orders

Australian women and children stuck in northern Syrian camps have offered to be placed under restrictive control orders if the Australian government will bring them home.

The situation in northern Syria has become dramatically more dangerous, including for those in the camps, after the US president, Donald Trump, declared US troops would be leaving, paving the way for a Turkish invasion.

While the UK government and other European nations have flagged taking advantage of a five-day ceasefire to repatriate their own citizens, the Australian government has maintained its position that it would not risk a single Australian life to retrieve anyone, and that their return could pose a risk to the community.

There are about 65 Australians, the wives and children of Isis fighters, in the al-Hol camp, and a group of 36 – mostly from Melbourne and mostly children – have formally suggested they could be placed under restrictive anti-terrorism control orders.

First reported in the Australian, the offer was put forward this week in an attempt to find common ground with the government.

Control orders were established in 2005 under counter-terrorism legislation, but have only been used a handful of times.

The orders can be applied to an individual if doing so “substantially helps prevent a terrorist attack”, or if the person has trained or taken part in training with a listed terrorist organisation, engaged in a hostile activity in a foreign country, or been convicted with terrorism offences in Australia or overseas.

Sarah Condon, a lawyer from Stary Norton Halphen, said the offer was not an admission of anything by the group.

“It’s a recognition that community protection in Australia, for obvious reasons, has to take some level of primacy in all of this,” she said. “It’s a show from our clients that says we accept that you’re concerned and we understand why. What the proposal does is it rises to meet that concern, by way of all the various mechanism that come within it.”

The control order suggestion does not address the Australian government’s concerns about the risk of an extraction operation, which Condon said was a separate issue.

Families urge government to reconsider rescuing Australians in Syria Read more

“But our position in relation to extraction process is that we’ve had multiple journalists flooding into the camp this week and by their reports it’s relatively safe during the ceasefire period,” she said.

“The Kurdish authorities have said to us they’ll do everything they can to assist the extraction – whether that’s delivering people to the border or an embassy in Erbil or wherever.

“In our dealings with the Kurdish they’ve been incredibly careful and helpful … but the request has to come from the Australian government. My view is it’s a lack of political will at the moment, and I can understand that, which is why this control order proposal is sensible.”

The orders can be varied to prevent a person from being in certain places, associating with certain people, or accessing particular kinds of technology such as the internet, and can also require the person to be subject to curfews and monitoring.

The orders last for a maximum of 12 months or three months if the subject is between the ages of 14 and 18. They cannot be applied on children under the age of 14.

Kamalle Dabboussy, whose daughter and three grandchildren are trapped in the camp, said the proposal attempted to find a solution for the women and children within the legal framework the minister had created.

“We were really motivated by concerns for the children, they need to be removed from that environment and we are trying to find a way where that might be possible,” Dabboussy said.

Dabboussy represents a group of 63 Australians – 19 women and 44 children – and said all 19 women had indicated they would accept a control order as a condition of repatriation to Australia.

Dabboussy said he understood the government’s position that some of the women, such as his daughter Mariam, were tricked or coerced into travelling to Syria but that others went willingly to the conflict zone.

“Without any admission of guilt, all of the women have agreed to accepting these orders if it means the children can removed from harm,” he said.

But the Guardian understands the government is not inclined to accept the group’s offer.

“We are attempting to cooperate, attempting to be partners in this, and to communicate directly with government, by making this proposal,” Dabboussy told the Guardian. “If these conditions are not acceptable to the government, we ask what are the conditions that are acceptable to government?

“We are offering to work with law enforcement, we know that the means exist to move these people out of the camp without endangering any other Australians, it can be done: we are looking to bridge the divide, for the sake of avoiding any more harm to these children.”

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, told reporters on Saturday the question of extraction was one for government, as he did not receive national security briefings. However, he said control orders were made to be used.

“They shouldn’t be voluntary,” he said. “The government should make assessments and, if people are a threat to Australia’s security, then those measures that have been supported by both sides of politics, passed through the parliament, should be used. That’s why they are in place.”

Simon Henderson, the head of policy at Save the Children Australia, described the families’ offer as “extraordinary and unprecedented”.