News live: Syria claims Australian government ‘refused to receive’ families from detention camp trying to leave Damascus

A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria that houses people with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants are stuck in the country because Australian authorities have refused to allow their return, Syrian officials said Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Thirteen women and children from four families last week left Roj camp, a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria’s capital.

An official at the camp at the time said the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.

In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their status, Syria’s information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that “the Australian government had refused to receive them”.

They were turned back before reaching Damascus international airport, the information ministry’s statement said.