Campaigners want women and their children living in camps in Syria to be allowed back to Britain
The UK has been accused of breaching international law by abandoning child victims of ISIS who remain in camps in Syria unable to return home even though hundreds have established new lives across Europe.
London has “weaponised” its powers of granting and rescinding citizenship to deprive the children and their mothers of their ability to be repatriated, a UK charity said.
The non-profit, Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (Ecpat), warned that the UK is failing to comply with obligations on the protection of children from exploitation, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
ISIS made its last stand on the border of Syria and Iraq nearly five years ago but the question of how to deal with the children of women who joined the extremists has yet to be fully resolved.
A separate report explores how European countries are seeking to bring to justice women who travelled to join ISIS and to reintegrate their children.
The International Centre for Counter Terrorism (ICCT) compares how Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands deal with women who went to join ISIS and try to manage relationships with their children.
The four countries represent more than half of all adults who travelled to join ISIS, with significant numbers of women prosecuted for terrorism.
But as the report, Female Jihadis Facing Justice, outlines, efforts have been made there to bring children home.
In contrast there has been a trickle of children repatriated to the UK, with 10 brought home at the end of last year and a further 60 trapped in camps in camps in Syria.
The UK organisation Ecpat has recently been giving evidence to parliament’s Accountability for Daesh Crimes inquiry.
Laura Duran, Ecpat’s head of policy, advocacy and research, said the UK’s breaches of international law centre on its failure to allow all children born to fighters of ISIS and other groups stranded in Syria to return to the UK.
Ms Duran told media the UK government had been “weaponising” its powers to prevent individuals to return.
“There are children who are stranded in Syria who travelled there with their parents when they were really young or were born there but have British nationality,” she said.
“They are likely to have suffered lots of horrific experiences, for example being imprisoned in Syria or in the camps with their families. The priority is for all British children currently living in Syria to immediately be allowed to return.”
Those who should be identified as victims of trafficking from returning, include Shamima Begum, who ran away from her home in London aged 15 to join ISIS, she said.
“There are other people in Syria who were recruited as children and who now maybe adults and may have been recruited as really young children and who may still be children.
“They are the ones who should be identified as victims, such as Sahmima Begum, and allowed to return.”
In contrast, since 2019, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands have repatriated 319 children from camps, and 113 women, figures in the ICCT study show.
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