'ISIS bride' barred from Australia issued permit to return home

A woman living in Syria, who has links to Islamic State and had been barred from returning to Australia, has been issued a permit to come home. The so-called ISIS bride, who is an Australian citizen, had been subject to a temporary exclusion order (TEO), put in place by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. But the minister said the government received advice it was legally obligated to allow her to return if she applied for a permit. "We received the final advice yesterday that we can no longer have an exclusion condition any longer for her," he said. "The temporary exclusion order applies until a permit is issued, and when a permit is requested, a permit lawfully has to be issued." The woman was the only person issued a TEO from the cohort of women and children with links to the Islamic State, living in camps in Syria. She is expected to return to Australia with her child. Surveillance set at 'legal limit' Mr Burke said security agencies were ready to extend a "very high level of surveillance". "The conditions that then do apply to her are everything that is possible," he said. "For example, she will have to report and we will have to know where she lives, where she works, where she studies, if she books a ticket to anywhere." The woman will also be barred from using any telecommunications device, including a phone, email account or social media platform, without 24 hours' notice to authorities. "Even if you want to use a public phone, it is 24 hours' notice," Mr Burke said. "There will be a very high level of surveillance, and we have gone absolutely to the legal limit that we are able to." He confirmed the woman and her child were the last remaining Australian citizens the government expected to return from the camps in Syria, set up in part to house the families of Islamic State fighters after the fall of the caliphate in 2014.