Government 'fails to protect' women and children trafficked by ISIS

The government is “failing to identify and protect” vulnerable British women and children who have been trafficked by Isis, a new report has found.

The so-called Islamic State trained and recruited hundreds of women and girls, who were forced into marriage, sexual slavery, domestic servitude and other forms of exploitation for several years.

Many British victims – including Shamima Begum, a schoolgirl from east London – have been detained indefinitely in Kurdish-run refugee camps in northeast Syria and are at high risk of torture and disease.

An investigation by the charity Reprieve found that of the 800 Britons who traveled to IS territory in Syria and Iraq, only 25 adults and 34 children are still in the region.

An estimated 84 percent of them are women and children, while almost half (44 percent) say they were forced to travel to the area by a relative's male partner.

Among those in one camp is a young girl, known as Nadia, who was taken to Syria by a male relative when she was just 12 years old. She was forced into marriage and repeatedly raped until she became pregnant at age 15.

Nadia and her young son are now detained in camps with no prospect of ever returning to the UK.

Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, visited the camps and said: “These are victims who have been abandoned. I find this cruel, insensitive and cynical.

“This is neither legal nor humane and contrary to our security interests. On every level, it is counterproductive.

Nadia is one of many girls and young women trained by Islamic State to join the terrorist group at the height of its power in the region.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Shamima Begum would not be allowed to return to the UK to appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.

Ms Begum, now 21, left her family home in Bethnal Green aged just 15 to travel to Syria with two school friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana.

She gave birth to a son, Jerah, who was a British citizen, but the British government made no effort to remove him from the camp. He died after less than three weeks.

Sajid Javid, then Home Secretary, responded by stripping her of British citizenship, falsely arguing that she would not remain stateless because her parents are of Bangladeshi origin.

In the foreword to the report, Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell said: “There is no decency or justice in abandoning victims of trafficking to torture and the death penalty.

“These are difficult cases but Britain, as a leading member of the United Nations, must set a good example. We cannot wash our hands of these Brits and abandon them in an ungoverned space. »

He said it was “the right thing to do” to bring back British nationals and added: “We must bring back all British nationals and tackle head on the vast ramifications of systematic trafficking carried out by the so-called Islamic State “.

The Home Office is known to have made “deprivation of citizenship orders” on 19 of the 25 British adults still in northeast Syria, but Reprieve estimates the number could be higher .

Siobhán Mullally, the UN special rapporteur on trafficking, said repatriating families currently detained in north-east Syria to the UK was a “necessary” step.

“The UK's obligations under domestic and international law to prevent, protect and effectively investigate the crime of trafficking must be met,” she said.

Ted Chaiban, Unicef ​​​​director for the Middle East, had already pleaded: “We call on all Member States to provide children – who are their citizens or born to their nationals – with civil status documents to prevent statelessness.

“This is consistent with the best interests of the child and international standards.”

Reprieve is calling on the UK government to follow the lead of other European countries – including France and Belgium – in repatriating British families stranded in north-east Syria and reviewing their situation on a case-by-case basis.

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