The first group of Australian women and children held in a detention camp in north-east Syria since the fall of the Islamic State (IS) group in 2019 is en route to Sydney.
The ABC can reveal four women and 13 children were taken from the camp on Thursday afternoon and made the 30 kilometre trip to the Iraq border before boarding a plane home.
It is likely to be the first step in repatriating the entire cohort of Australian citizens detained in the war-torn country.
France last week removed 40 women and 15 children from the camps, joining more than 25 countries that had repatriated their citizens since the fall of the IS in early 2019.
Those removed were assessed by Australian officials as being the most vulnerable of the 60 Australian women and children held in Roj.
Australian authorities have been on the ground in Syria, planning the removals with the assistance of the Kurdish administration.
DNA samples were taken from the women and children on October 15 to prove the children are Australian citizens.
"Given the sensitive nature of the matters involved, it would be inappropriate to comment further," a spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told the ABC.
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