More than 60 children of suspected British jihadists are estimated to have been caught up in Syria as terrorists and their families fled the collapsing caliphate. The British government took an initial step last November when it repatriated three kids to the UK.
The United Kingdom will repatriate a “handful” of orphaned or abandoned children of British jihadists from Syria, The Sun reports.
The kids will be placed under the “supreme legal guardianship” of the High Court, meaning that the government will take care of them so that they don't get exposed to extreme Islam and pose a threat to national security.
Currently, five children whose British parents are either dead or missing have been tracked and identified pending return to the UK, according to the report. Their citizenship status is unclear; there has been no word on whether there are further cases in the pipeline either.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously shown sympathy with the children of British Daesh* suspects from Syria, saying the government “should help” them return to the UK where possible. In November, three orphans were brought back to the UK from Kurdish custody.
The issue of how to deal with foreign citizens who joined the likes of Daesh in Syria and Iraq has long plagued Western governments. Thousands of suspected foreign fighters and their children are being held by Kurdish forces in impromptu detention camps in…
