A woman sorts used clothing at the al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, January 2020 (AFP)


The UK Government is failing to bring back British children from camps in northeast Syria.

An estimated 60 British juveniles are in the camps, where Islamic State fighters and their relatives are held. About 65,000 women and children are in two overcrowded camps, established as the US-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces drove ISIS out of its last positions in the northeast in March 2019.

The Kurdish Red Crescent reported this month that at least 517 people, 371 of them children, died in 2019 in the largest camp, al-Hol. Many perished from preventable diseases. The UN gave a toll of more than 700 at al-Hol and the other main camp at Roj.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced in October that “unaccompanied minors or orphans” in Syria could be returned to Britain. After three orphans returned in November, he proclaimed “the right thing to do”: “These innocent, orphaned children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson cheered “a great success”.

But the Government has repeatedly refused to say when any of the remaining British children will come home. Home Secretary Priti Patel has not responded to a letter from Save the Children, sent last December. The charity says Home Office officials have stonewalled over requests for a progress report.

Orlaith Minogue of Save the Children summarizes, “When we had those statements from Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, they were under a lot of political pressure but since then we’ve heard nothing”.

The Government has blocked any legislative order to bring back the children. In February 2017, it scrapped the Dubs Amendment which provided for return for minors from war-ravaged countries. In January, the Government prevented the reintroduction of the amendment, through the Brexit Bill for the UK’s departure from the European Union.

Last month, France’s Government brought home 10 French children of suspected ISIS fighters. At least 47 Canadians — eight men, 13 women, and 26 children, most under age 6 — are appealing for return.

A UK Home Office spokesperson maintained, “The UK does more to support unaccompanied children than any EU member state.” While Coronavirus had suspended all refugee resettlement activity, it would restart “as soon as possible once conditions allow”, the spokesperson declared.

On Thursday, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that Shamima Begum, 20, in a northeast Syrian camp after leaving London at 15 to marry an Islamic State fighter, should be allowed home.

The Government has stripped Begum of her citizenship to keep her in Syria, but the court said she must be allowed to return to the UK to appeal the decision.

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