Home Office planning how to rescue British children born to foreign fighters

Home Office is working out how to rescue British children born to foreign fighters as two more jihadi brides are stripped of their citzenship.

Shamima Begum with her baby boy in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria.

British officials are working out how to rescue British children born to foreign fighters, the foreign secretary said, as it emerged that two more jihadist brides had been stripped of their citzenship.

Reema and Zara Iqbal, sisters who between them have five sons under eight, have had their British citizenship removed since marrying ISIS fighters in Syria. They married into a terrorist cell linked to the murder of western hostages.

The comments by Jeremy Hunt came as Sajid Javid, the home secretary, faced continued criticism after the death of Shamima Begum’s baby in a Syrian camp. Ms Begum, 19, who fled Bethnal Green in east London four years ago, had pleaded to be allowed to return to Britain with her son, having already lost two children.

Mr Javid revoked her passport in the belief that she had citizenship of Bangladesh through her parents. The government cannot remove someone’s citizenship if it will leave that person stateless. Mr Javid has faced growing criticism since Jerah, three weeks old, died in a camp last week.

Diane Abbott, the shadow foreign secretary, called his death a “stain on the conscience of this government”.

Philip Lee, who resigned from the government over Brexit, urged the home secretary to change his approach and allow ISIS brides and their children back to the UK. He said that Britain could not export the problem.

Mr Hunt said the British boy’s death was “an incredibly distressing and sad situation” but that it was too dangerous to dispatch officials to the warzone, adding that they would be at a greater risk than the journalists who had interviewed Ms Begum. “Shamima knew when she made the decision to join Daesh that she was going to a country where there’s no embassy, where there’s no consular assistance and I’m afraid those decisions, awful though it is, they do have consequences,” he told BBC1.

“We are the women of the Islamic State”, they chant, as they attack our camera. pic.twitter.com/cR5CbzUBdm

— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) March 10, 2019

Mr Hunt said he was working with Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, on how children could be safely returned. “We have been looking at how we can get in touch with these children, how we can find a way to get them out. Sadly in this case, it wasn’t possible,” he added.

The home secretary said last month that hundreds of children born to British women who had joined Islamic State could be living in Syria and Iraq. He said that it would be incredibly difficult to arrange the return of a child from Syria but that if a child could be brought to somewhere with a British consular presence, such as Turkey or Iraq, it could be possible to provide help.

The Iqbal sisters, from Canning Town, east London, left for Syria in 2013 after marrying into a six-man cell linked to the filmed murders of western hostages by the terrorist known as Jihadi John. Quoting legal sources, The Sunday Times named the women as Reema, 30, and her sister Zara, 28, whose parents are from Pakistan.

The Home Office said: “Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.”

A Muslim leader called for “any Muslim country” to take in Ms Begum. At the Baitul Futuh Mosque, in Morden, south London, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who represents millions of Ahmadi Muslims, said: “Since her parents were from Bangladesh the first duty is of Bangladesh to take her.” He did not blame the government for her baby’s death.

THE TIMES