Britain brings dwelling ISIS-linked ladies and kids from Syria camps | UK | News | EUROtoday

Britain has quietly repatriated Islamic State-linked ladies and kids who had been held alongside Shamima Begum in Syria, in keeping with a director of the camp that holds the so-called Isis brides.

Six ladies in camps held by the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been despatched again to Britain with out fanfare  together with 9 youngsters. There have been considerations that Isis prisoners may escape within the chaos engulfing jap Syria because the central authorities start to reclaim territory from the Kurdish-led SDF, experiences The Times.

Begum stays in camp as 29 Britons keep detained

However, the SDF stays accountable for al-Roj camp close to the Iraqi border, the place Begum and the opposite British ladies had been held. A camp official advised The Times that 29 ladies and kids who maintain or held British passports remained within the camp, which is prone to be transferred to the authority of the Damascus authorities led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the nation’s president.

Citizenship was stripped from Begum, considered one of three ladies from Bethnal Green, east London, who travelled to Syria to hitch Isis in 2015 on the age of 15. The different two ladies are each thought to have died in combating between the western-led coalition and Isis jihadists.

After Begum was found by reporters in SDF detention in 2019, an outcry pressured the then-Conservative authorities to declare she wouldn’t be allowed to return to Britain. The coverage was utilized to different ladies after the final Isis holdouts fell to the SDF.

Minors returned underneath strict situations of anonymity

Some unaccompanied minors had been allowed to return to the UK and had been handed to social companies underneath situations of anonymity. However, minors who had been with their moms had been pressured to stay in Syria.

The UK’s official coverage stays unchanged, however the Foreign Office has allowed a handful of ladies to return with their youngsters on a case-by-case foundation. Most of these repatriated have been ladies who had been taken or travelled to Syria there once they had been underneath 18.

In November, a report by the Independent Commission on Counter-Terrorism Law, Policy and Practice steered that three grownup ladies and 18 youngsters had been repatriated, however there have solely been public bulletins concerning two ladies, considered one of whom returned in 2022 along with her son and one other lady with 5 youngsters in 2023. It is known that two extra households returned in 2024 and 2025.

The authorities is making ready to renew deportations of overseas criminals and failed asylum seekers to Syria. The UK started voluntary returns after the autumn of the Assad regime in December 2024. In November Shabana Mahmood, the house secretary, introduced that the Home Office had begun exploring the opportunity of enforced returns for the primary time in 15 years.

The particulars about Begum and al-Roj camp had been confirmed by its co-director, Rasheed Afrin. He stated six UK ladies and 9 youngsters had been despatched dwelling in recent times.

Chaos as bigger camp handed to Syrian army

The destiny of the remaining ladies and kids hangs within the stability after a bigger camp was taken over by the Syrian army, which has launched an operation to finish Kurdish autonomy within the northeast.

In al-Hawl, the bigger camp, the handover was chaotic. The Kurdish SDF pulled out its troops as the military superior, resulting in riots and arson and dozens of the ladies escaping.

The US, which is debating withdrawing its forces from Syria, has brokered a deal to switch male Isis prisoners to neighbouring Iraq.

Children raised on apocalyptic ISIS beliefs

Prisoners within the camps had languished underneath Kurdish guard for years after the demise of Isis’s so-called caliphate. The caliphate was meant to endure and broaden, because the Isis slogan goes, however in Syria it shrank to the 2 jail camps.

At al-Hawl, the ladies raised their youngsters in tents on the apocalyptic beliefs of Isis. Children would chant that slogan at guests as they pelted them with stones. Boys who reached puberty had been pressured into intercourse with ladies to supply extra “lion cubs” for the caliphate that lay behind a flimsy wire fence.

Jihan Hanan, who was the director of al-Hawl till this week, stated: “There were no preparations for the handover. I’m looking at the videos and pictures coming out and it burns my heart. The people inside, the international community’s indifference. At the end of the day these are women and children.”

The SDF had referred to as on international locations to repatriate their residents, however most have refused. “Enough, the international community should say enough, this matter needs to be resolved,” she stated.

Hanan stated the wives and kids of the Isis members different, from the ultra-fanatic to those that had been sucked into the extremist group, or had been born to folks who had been.