The children of Isis brides from Britain are being quietly returned to this country and put up for adoption.
In one case, two siblings aged under eight are to be found new homes here after their mother was killed during fighting in Syria and their father was captured and jailed by western allies. The siblings are expected to be adopted even though one set of grandparents, who live in another country, are said to be willing to care for them.
At least ten children, mainly orphans or unaccompanied minors, have been discreetly repatriated from detention camps for Isis families in Syria following the fall of the so-called caliphate.
Charities estimate that at least 38 other children with British links remain in the camps, along with 21 women from the UK — including Shamima Begum, the former schoolgirl from Bethnal Green in east London.
Pressure is mounting on the British government to repatriate the remaining children amid fears that their continued detention could result in a new generation of terrorists.
The UK is the last western European country to block the return of Isis families, despite claims from America that repatriation is “the only durable solution”. So far, Britain has made an exception only for a small number of unaccompanied children “subject to national security concerns”, according to the Foreign Office.
The siblings facing adoption were flown back to the UK in spring last year and are understood to be living with foster carers in the southeast of England. They were born in Syria after their mother travelled to the country with scores of other British Muslims following the declaration of the caliphate in 2014 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Isis leader. Soon after her arrival, she married a jihadist from a country outside Europe.
● Is it time to bring home Isis brides and their children?
The elder sibling was born around the time that his mother was stripped of her British citizenship by the Home Office. The second child was born afterwards.
Their mother is thought to have been killed during Isis’s last stand against western-backed coalition forces in Baghuz in eastern Syria in 2019. Their father, meanwhile, was captured and taken to a prison in the region for foreign fighters, where he remains.
The youngsters were initially transferred with other relatives to al-Hol detention camp for Isis suspects in northeast Syria. However, they were later moved to a Kurdish-run orphanage, which is when the British authorities are believed to have become involved.
Human rights charities believe that at least seven other unaccompanied children from Isis camps in Syria have been accepted back. Unusually, one further child was allowed to return to the UK last October with his mother.
All of the children are thought to have received counselling. Some of the older ones may also have been referred to the government’s Prevent deradicalisation programme.
In most cases, social workers are likely to have sought to place the children with other surviving relatives, such as grandparents, assuming there are no concerns about violence or extremism.
Campaigners believe that one set of grandparents of the two siblings who were repatriated last year would be keen to look after them. However, notwithstanding the fact that they live overseas, the local authority caring for the children is understood to have declined their offer.
One supporter claimed that the grandparents had been met with an “unjust” line of questioning when they were interviewed by social workers. It is believed the other set of grandparents have been deemed unable to look after the children.
Under existing guidelines, any prospective adoptive parent would have to be told about the siblings’ Isis upbringing.
Save the Children and Reprieve, a human rights charity, estimate that about 60 women and children with links to Britain are stranded in the Kurdish-run detention camps in Syria, where there are concerns about poor hygiene, a lack of education and the presence of hardened Isis militants enforcing sharia law.
The most high-profile woman is Begum, who travelled to Syria in 2015 when she was 15. She lost her appeal earlier this year against the government’s decision to strip her of British citizenship.
Following pressure from the US to shut the camps, most western countries have agreed to repatriate their citizens. France has reportedly returned more than 160 children and over 50 women, while Germany has taken back almost 100 children and their mothers.
Those being repatriated are often driven across Syria’s border with Iraq and flown out of Erbil airport. In some mass returns, they have been transported back to their home countries by US military planes.
Richard Barrett, a former director of counter-terrorism at MI6 and a former United Nations terrorism monitor, said that the government’s stance could increase the risk to Britain if the camps remain open.
Barrett said: “It is hard to argue that these women and children pose less of a threat, either now or in the future, while they remain poorly supervised, exposed to the influence of their former Islamic State comrades and at risk of further exploitation than they would if under the watchful eye of our highly competent security authorities in the UK, and of their own communities.”
Katherine Cornett, head of Reprieve’s unlawful detentions team, accused the UK of “abdicating responsibility” and claimed that boys faced being moved to even more dangerous adult prisons when they reached adolescence.
“It shames ministers and shocks the conscience that British kids are growing up in freezing tents in dangerously unstable detention camps simply because their government refuses to bring them home,” she said. “The longer it goes on, the greater the chances that a British child will die in the camps, or that a British boy will be taken from his family by men with guns and thrown into an adult prison never to be heard from again.”
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “Each request for consular assistance from Syria is considered on a case-by-case basis taking into account all relevant circumstances, including, but not limited to, national security.”
