New South Wales police will actively monitor women and children linked to Islamic State fighters who return to Australia, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said in a televised interview on Sky News on Sunday morning. Several women and children associated with Islamic State fighters are returning to Australia, with a woman and her child expected to settle in Sydney as part of that cohort.

"My responsibility is to make sure the community of NSW is safe. So obviously with people returning from declared areas, people who have been associated with terrorist organisations, we will actively monitor those people if they return to NSW. For operational reasons, I won't go into who may be arrested but obviously we're working very closely with commonwealth authorities," Lanyon said. Pressed on whether arrests would follow the arrivals, he declined to identify any individual targets of police action.

"Again, for operational reasons, I don't want to go into specifically who will be arrested," he said. The Australian Federal Police said a number of people will be arrested when they land in Australia, and that details would be revealed if and when those arrests occur. The AFP did not name any of those expected to be arrested.