THREE Australian women were refused bail when they appeared in courts today charged with slavery and terrorism offences after they arrived home from Syria with 10 others, who police allege are linked to the Islamic State.

Four women and nine children, who have spent years in Roj camp in the Syrian desert, landed on two Qatar Airways flights from Doha on Thursday, despite the Australian government warning they would face charges if they returned.

Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were charged in a Melbourne court in relation to allegations that their family bought a female Yazidi slave for $10,000, police said in a statement.

Ms Abbas was charged with four crimes against humanity, and Ms Ahmed was charged with two slavery crimes. Each charge carries a potential penalty of 25 years in prison.

Janai Safar, 32, was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and with entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organisation. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Ms Abbas, her husband and children travelled in 2014 to Syria, which was then the centre of the Islamic State’s co-called caliphate, police allege.

Police say Ms Abbas was complicit in buying the slave, who was kept in the family home.

She and Ms Ahmed were detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and had been held with other family members at Roj camp since.

The camp in north-east Syria near the Iraq border houses mostly women and children who were displaced from areas that were once controlled by the Islamic State group.

Police allege Ms Safar followed her Islamic State-fighter partner to Syria in 2015 and had a child there. The partner reportedly died in 2017.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that he had sympathy for the returned children, but none for the parents who could expect no government support.

“I have absolutely zero sympathy for these people,” Mr Albanese told reporters. “I do have sympathy for the children, who are victims of decisions that their parents have made.”