One adult among the group of 34 Australian women and children in a Syrian detention camp has been issued with a temporary exclusion order, banning them from coming to Australia for up to two years.

But the rest of the group has not been assessed by intelligence agencies as meeting the threshold to be banned from Australia, potentially clearing the way for the wives and children of Islamic State fighters to re-enter the country if they can make their own way back.

Facing another day of pressure over the families of killed or captured IS fighters, prime minister Anthony Albanese continued to maintain that his government was doing nothing to assist or repatriate them. When asked about reports the group had been issued passports by the government, Albanese insisted it was simply “implementation of Australian law”.

“We are providing no assistance to these people, and won’t provide any assistance to these people, but we won’t breach Australian law,” he told a press conference.

On Monday night, 34 Australian women and children left from al-Roj camp, in north-eastern Syria, after being released by Kurdish authorities for their expected repatriation to Australia.

But they were forced to return due to “poor coordination between their relatives and the Damascus government”, a camp official told Agence France-Presse. The Guardian understands their repatriation had not been organised by the Australian government and it was unclear if the group were in possession of their travel documents.

The Nine newspapers reported a worker at the al-Roj camp claimed to have seen Australian passports in the possession of the group.

Guardian Australia reported on Tuesday that the home affairs minister, Tony Burke had been taking advice from security agencies as to whether any should be subject to a temporary exclusion order (TEO), which can applied to Australian citizens if the minister “suspects on reasonable grounds” that such an order would prevent a terrorist act or supporting a terror group.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Burke confirmed one TEO had been issued, but others in the group had not been assessed to meet the necessary threshold. He did not provide the age or gender of the person subject to the exclusion order, but Guardian Australia understands it applies to an adult.

“I can confirm that one individual in this cohort has been issued a Temporary Exclusion Order, which was made on advice from security agencies. At this stage security agencies have not provided advice that other members of the cohort meet the required legal thresholds for temporary exclusion orders,” he said.

Shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam queried the decision to level a TEO on only one person.

“If the Minister is claiming that only one of the [cohort] is deemed risky enough to warrant a Temporary Exclusion Order, then this raises more questions than answers,” he said in a statement.

“These [group] all travelled to the same ‘declared area’ for the same reason of supporting the same listed terrorist organisation – how can only one member of this group be deemed a risk and the rest somehow okay?”

In a Sky News interview, Duniam suggested TEOs should be levelled against the whole cohort, and said the opposition would support changing laws to lower the threshold to apply an exclusion order.

Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, raised concern about any children of the woman subject to the exclusion order, noting either they would have to travel in the care of other women in the group or remain with their mother.

He also noted that the exclusion order may compromise the ability of the women to travel outside of Syria, including the camp, which could compromise their ability to have the TEO revoked in future.

Burke in his statement said he was not aware of the movements of Dr Jamal Rifi, a Sydney doctor who it has been claimed in media reports is assisting the group. Burke said he had only seen information in media reports. He said Rifi had not discussed any travel plans with him and “nor would he have any reason to”.

The Guardian has made attempts to contact Rifi.

Asked earlier in the day about whether exclusion orders would be levelled against the group, Albanese said the government was taking security advice and would “do what we can to keep Australians safe within the law”.

“We will implement the law to its fullest capacity that we can,” he said.

“These people, I’ve said yesterday, you make your bed, you lie in it. These are people who chose to go overseas to align themselves with an ideology which is the caliphate, which is a brutal, reactionary ideology and that seeks to undermine and destroy our way of life. So, we will be doing and are doing nothing to assist or to repatriate these people.

Albanese conceded it was “unfortunate” that children were caught in the situation, but added: “that’s not their decision, but it’s the decision of their parents or their mother.”

Asked about reports the group had Australian passports, Albanese replied: “implementation of Australian law, is what is happening.”