Three women with links to Islamic State have been arrested in chaotic scenes when their flights touched down in Australia on Thursday night.

One of the women – named by the ABC as 32-year-old Janai Safar – was charged late on Thursday, after arriving in Sydney, with entering a declared area and joining the Islamic State group.

Two more women – named in other media as grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab, 31 – were arrested by federal police after they landed in Melbourne.

The Nine newspapers reported on Friday morning that Abbas had been charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including possessing and using a slave, and Zeinab with two counts of crimes against humanity.

A fourth woman who arrived in Australia was not detained.

The so-called ISIS brides returned with seven children and two men in Sydney and Melbourne to face a media storm.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said the women would face eight offences, each carrying maximum jail time of 25 years.

Safar is expected to face Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.

Investigations into the group continue.

Years ago, the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners who intended to fight for Islamic State.

The women and children have spent years in a Syrian refugee camp — it’s unclear whether the men who travelled back are now-adult children or other family members helping the group travel home.

There was chaos at Melbourne Airport when the women and children arrived. Photo: AAP

The 14-hour Qatar Airways flight to Melbourne from Doha landed about 5.30pm after a short delay.

A woman, a man and a group of children passed through the international arrivals hall about three hours after their flight landed, with reporters and television cameras waiting.

Police escorted away other members of the cohort.

Intermittent scuffles broke out between members of the media and a group of men, some wearing masks, who escorted the arrivals to a waiting minibus.

Members of the group told media to stop recording, including one man who yelled “turn your f—ing cameras off”.

Heavily armed police officers kept the groups apart and barked orders at the crowd as the woman and children were guided into the vehicle.

In Sydney, Safar was escorted off the plane by uniformed officers before any other passengers were allowed to leave, other arrivals at the airport said.

A federal police spokesperson said she was arrested and taken to Mascot Police Station.

Supporters surround an Islamic State-linked family as they arrive at Melbourne airport. Photo: AAP

While the women face potentially lengthy legal proceedings, uncertainty surrounds how their children will be integrated into an alien society.

Some of the women travelled willingly to support their partners who wanted to fight for Islamic State. But advocates for the group say others were coerced or went to the Middle East only to keep their family together.

All children returning home would likely need help integrating into Australian society after years in Syrian camps, while others could need more intensive deradicalisation support, leading extremism researcher Michele Grossman said.

“This is going to be very much case by case,” the Deakin University professor said.

“We can’t make assumptions that all children will respond equally … to the kinds of indoctrination activities that we know have gone on in those camps.”

The women and children are Australian citizens and government ministers have said there are no practical measures that could have stopped their return.

The premiers of NSW and Victoria said the children returning to their states would go into deradicalisation programs, and community safety was paramount.

One woman has been barred from entering Australia on national security grounds, while the opposition has repeated calls for the entire group to be blocked.

The group forms part of a larger cohort of about 30 women and children who have been trying to return from Syria for years after the 2019 toppling of Islamic State.

-with AAP