BRITONS linked to the jihadist movement Islamic State may be allowed to return home from camps in Syria, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said today.

Following the return to Australia of four Islamic State-linked women and their nine children on Thursday, Jonathan Hall KC said the new government in Syria “opens up further possibilities.”

He explained that British citizens and people who were stripped of their citizenship and who had been held in detention camps could be sent back to Britain.

Maya Foa, director of human rights group Reprieve, said that Australians returning home was a “really significant development.”

She said: “What it shows is that the new Syrian government doesn’t want to have to maintain these camps forever.

“So what I think we can derive from that is that governments who have nationals or people stripped of citizenship who were previously nationals in the camps need to rethink how they’re approaching this problem.”