British jihadis’ children could return to UK, suggests Hunt
THE children of British jihadis who joined Islamic State could be allowed back into the country, the Foreign Secretary revealed yesterday.
Jeremy Hunt said he was looking at ways to get in touch with Isis families in Syria who have UK passports and ‘get them [children] out’ – just days after the death of the three-week- old son of the notorious east London jihadi bride Shamima Begum.
He also said Britain was pouring in millions of pounds of foreign aid to agencies operating in Syrian camps to support Isis women and children. The money is going to those who are considered ‘dependants’ rather than former fighters or those who took an active role in the conflict.
Interviewed yesterday on BBc One’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hunt claimed it had been too dangerous to send British officials to help Miss Begum in the refugee camp where she lost her baby, Jerah.
The newborn’s death from pneumonia on Thursday sparked a backlash against Home Secretary Sajid Javid for revoking her British citizenship in an attempt to block her return to the UK. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott called the death a ‘stain on the conscience of this Government’.
Mr Hunt said: ‘We have been looking at how we can get in touch with these children, how we can find a way to get them out.’
He added that he was working with International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who was ‘sympathetic’ to the plight of Isis children and is trying to find ways to help them without risking national security. Last night the Foreign Office refused to clarify whether Mr Hunt was referring to bringing back only the children or their British-born parents as well.
Miss Mordaunt added yesterday: ‘ It’s right to take the position we have as a Government to protect the UK from those who would do us harm. But in taking that position we are not devoid of compassion for innocents taken to Syria.’
When Mr Hunt was asked why Britain did not try to rescue Miss Begum’s baby, he said: ‘It’s an incredibly distressing and sad situation. This is a warzone. The mother chose to leave a free country to join a terrorist organisation, and we have to think about the safety of the British officials that I would send into that warzone as a representative of the Government.
‘Now, Shamima knew when she made the decision to join Daesh [Isis] she was going into a country where there was no consular assistance, and I’m afraid those decisions, awful though it is, have consequences.’
Two other British women – Reema Iqbal, 30, and her sister Zara, 28 – who married into a terror cell linked to the murder of Western hostages, have also been stripped of their citizenship. The women, whose parents are originally from Pakistan, had five boys under the age of eight between them.
‘It’s an incredibly sad situation’