UK to repatriate orphaned children of British ISIS members from Syria

The UK is to repatriate orphaned children of British ISIS members from Syria, the foreign secretary has announced. 

The UK is to repatriate orphaned children of British ISIS members from Syria, the foreign secretary has announced. 

The children, who cannot be identified for security reasons, will be the first British citizens to be brought back to the UK from territory formerly under the control of the terror group. 

Some 25 British women and more than 60 of their children have been stranded in the country’s northeast since fleeing the ISIS caliphate in its final days earlier this year. Most of them are under the age of five, meaning they would probably have been born in Isis territory.

The UK government has been reluctant to bring back its citizens over security concerns, but Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said last month that it was looking into repatriating orphans and unaccompanied minors.

The UK is to repatriate orphaned children of British ISIS members from Syria, the foreign secretary has announced. 

The children, who cannot be identified for security reasons, will be the first British citizens to be brought back to the UK from territory formerly under the control of the terror group. 

Some 25 British women and more than 60 of their children have been stranded in the country’s northeast since fleeing the ISIS caliphate in its final days earlier this year. Most of them are under the age of five, meaning they would probably have been born in Isis territory.

The UK government has been reluctant to bring back its citizens over security concerns, but Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said last month that it was looking into repatriating orphans and unaccompanied minors.

“Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life.”

The United Nations has previously called for all children of foreign ISIS members to be repatriated to their home countries.