Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out allowing an Australian Islamic State (IS) bride back into the country to provide better care for her children.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Morrison said that a woman who left the country to fight for terrorist organisations had to face consequences for her actions.
"They have to take responsibility for those decisions to join up with terrorists who are fighting Australia. I'm not going to put any Australian at risk to try to extract people from those situations," he said.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from a refugee camp in northeast Syria, the woman, who refused to confirm her identity, said she wants to come back to Australia because her two-year-old son and six-month-old son have fallen ill, reports Xinhua.
"Both of my kids are sick. (My daughter is) very malnourished, she's ... very skinny," she said.
"My daughter needs milk and I don't have money to buy her milk. I don't know what to do now," she said.
"I want to go back to my country. I think everybody's asking for that because I'm an Australian citizen."
The prime minister said "they (the parents) have placed their children in this horrendous position... I think the children are innocent victims in the terrorist acts of their parents."
"There is a process for us to deal with them under Australian law, and they will face the full force of Australian law should they be in a position to seek to come back," he added.
According to data released by the Australian Department of Home Affairs in February, the fates of up to 100 Australians who left the country for the Middle East to take up the fight for the IS remain unknown.
Two days ago, Canberra rejected calls from the United States to "take responsibility" for its home-grown IS fighters, citing advice that it would be "very dangerous" to repatriate them.
The bride's case is similar to that of Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old British IS bride whose newborn son died in a Syrian refugee camp earlier in March, according to ABC.
Prior to her son's death Begum appealed to the British government to allow her back into the country but the government instead cancelled her citizenship.