An Australian grandmother is one step closer to bringing her three orphaned grandchildren home from a northern Syrian refugee camp after the Australian government announced it was working with the Red Cross.

Sydney-based Karen Nettleton has travelled to Syria for the third time to work on their release and has worked tirelessly to bring them back to Australia, fearing they may die in the camp without acute medical care.

She told the ABC on Friday her eldest surviving granddaughter Zaynab, 17, who is eight months pregnant with her third child, was suffering severe malnutrition, is bleeding and has schrapnel wounds in her chest.

“She’s malnourished, she’s having stomach pains; she has constant diarrhoea,” Ms Nettleton told the ABC. “I am so worried about that child, she really needs to be in hospital to be really checked out, she’s like a skeleton.”

“They’re just kids – they’re Australian children, they’re orphan children, they’re my children – and they’re not going to be a risk to anyone,” she told the ABC.

The plea comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed Australia is working with the Red Cross to repatriate the orphaned children found alive in a Syrian refugee camp.

Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf’s surviving children – Zaynab, Hoda 16, and Humzeh, 8, – were taken to Syria by their mother five years ago before losing both parents and two brothers in the conflict zone.

Hoda spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, confirming her sister is heavily pregnant and malnourished and saying she “forgives” her parents for taking the family to Syria.

“[Zaynab] is very sick,” she said. “A lot of the pregnant women here are sick because there’s no treatment here.

She said she felt “upset” when she thought about being taken to Syria to join the Islamic State at the age of just 11.

“But that was my parents’ choice and I forgive them for it,” she said.

Just a week after insisting he would not risk Australian lives to rescue the children from the Syrian refugee camp, the prime minister has revealed talks are underway to issue travel documents to some of them, if they are confirmed as citizens.

The ABC reported Zaynab was forced to marry at the age of 13 to another notorious jihadi, Mohamed Elomar. He has been photographed alongside Sharrouf, holding severed heads.

With Zaynab are her two children, Ayesha, 3, and Fatima, 2, who have citizenship rights by descent through their teenage mother.

“What I have said on this matter, I’m not going to put any Australian life at risk to extract people from these conflict zones,” Mr Morrison said.

“The process here … is that where there are particularly children … that’s where our focus is.

“We are working with the Red Cross. When they are a position [to help people] return to Australia, we will co-operate with that process.”

An undated photo of Sharrouf with three of his children.

Under Australian law, children can be stripped of their citizenship if their parents are dual citizens who lose their own citizenship because of terrorist conduct. But this cannot happen if the children would be rendered stateless.

“There are the normal assessments that are done. The identification process, issues relating to people’s citizenship that has to be confirmed … but where those issues are able to be addressed, we would follow the normal processes for issuing of travel documents,” Mr Morrison said.

“Where there are Australians who are caught up in this situation, particularly as innocent children, we will do what I think Australians would expect us to do on their behalf.”

But not all Coalition MPs share Mr Morrison’s view that the Sharrouf family are “innocent children”.

ASIO has spent years war-gaming the potential return of dozens of jihadi children to Australia. Traumatised and having been exposed to violence, they are considered to pose possible future terrorist risks at home.

It’s believed that Sharrouf and his two eldest sons, Abdullah, 12, and Zarqawi, 11, were killed in a US air strike two years ago. The children’s mother, Tara, died in 2015.

Under planned exclusion laws, the youngsters could be held in detention on their return to Australia while they are deradicalised and to receive medical and psychological treatment.

However, those laws are yet to pass Parliament.

Human Rights Commissioner Ed Santow told The New Daily that, under international human rights law, Australia must consider the best interests of the children.

“No innocent child should have their Australian citizenship removed simply because of their parents’ actions,” he said.

“Whenever a person’s Australian citizenship is removed, there is a real risk that they will be rendered stateless.

“A stateless person faces marginalisation, disempowerment and diminished human rights. These consequences are even more severe for children, who rely on others for their protection.”