France to take in the children of Isil fighters

Captured jihadist mothers will be prosecuted in Syria, but their children are to be brought to the West

FRANCE plans to repatriate the children of Isil fighters held in Syria amid fears that they could be radicalised and turned into future jihadists. Officials have said they will decide on a case-by-case basis which of the estimated 150 children currently held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would be taken home.

The mothers, who will be left behind to be prosecuted by local authorities, will also have to agree to be separated from their children, most of whom are under the age of six.

“It is in the best interest of the children,” a French official said.

A Western diplomat told The Daily Telegraph that the British Government was “not happy” with the idea when it was first floated. “They were worried it would put more pressure on them to take responsibility for their own, which they absolutely don’t want to do,” he said.

It is understood that at least two British women and four children are being held in a camp in northern Syria.

The children, despite being born in territory controlled by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), will have inherited UK citizenship from their British-born parents.

Britain has so far refused calls to take back any of its nationals detained by the SDF, which is backed by the United States and the UK. In the case of the two Isil “Beatles”, the Government stripped them of their citizenship.

France cannot take the children directly from the SDF because it is not a legally recognised authority, nor can they be handed over by the Bashar alassad regime, with which France has no diplomatic relations.

Instead, the plan is for the children to be handed over to the Assad government in Damascus, from where they will be transferred to neighbouring Lebanon, Western diplomats told The Telegraph. French officials said the mothers would be left in Syria to be prosecuted.

However, the SDF has previously said it will not try any foreign suspects. David Toube, the director of policy at the London-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, said repatriating the children of former Isil members was a sensible policy.

“Good for the French. You cannot abandon children to their fate,” he said. “These children are French citizens, it would be very improper to exclude them on the basis that their parents may have done terrible things.”

A senior British security source said the Government would not seek to separate children from their mothers. “We always have an obligation to children if they are British citizens, and the Government would seek to keep mothers and children together,” the source said.

France is believed to have allowed the transfer of one of its Isil suspects from Syria to authorities in Baghdad last week, in what would be the first such handover between the SDF and Iraq. Such a move would be controversial because Iraq maintains the death penalty, which France opposes.