THE British government has an obligation to protect innocent children born to Islamic State fighters in Syria, defence secretary Penny Mordaunt has said.
Speaking at a military conference in Westminster on Tuesday (4), Mordaunt said Britain has an obligation to innocent children who were taken into a war zone. However, “extracting them would be a very difficult thing to do and would in all practical honesty require the practical consent of the parents who were there,” she said.
About 76,000 women and children are reported to be living in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria. Many of the children are believed to be of European descent.
In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was willing to help repatriate vulnerable British children from the refugee camps of Syria.
“We are ready to help any government that faces an issue. Children are first and foremost victims,” Elodie Schindler, spokesperson for the ICRC, was quoted as saying.
Schindler said the ICRC was in contact with European governments, but refused to say if they were in talks with the UK. “It is the prerogative of the government; we cannot force them to repatriate their kids,” she said.
France and Germany has already decided to repatriate several children of Daesh (Islamic State) supporters.
The issue of children living in crowded refugee camps in Syria was brought to focus in February after Shamima Begum, a British teen in Syria, expressed a desire to return home with her infant son.
Home secretary Sajid Javid responded by stripping her of her British citizenship. Begum's infant son died of pneumonia shortly after.
Begum is still in Syria and she is preparing to appeal against the removal of her citizenship.
