Britain has quietly repatriated Islamic State (IS) brides and their children, who were being held in Syria alongside Shamima Begum.
Six women and nine children from al-Roj camp, a detention centre near Damascus’s north-eastern border with Iraq, have returned to the UK in recent years, according to reports.
Many of the female detainees in the centre, which is home to an estimated 2,400 women, are foreign wives or widows of men linked to IS.
Begum, 26, from Bethnal Green in London, travelled to Syria at the age of 15 with two other schoolgirls in support of the group and married a jihadi fighter shortly after arriving. She has been held at the camp since at least 2019.
Almost 30 women and children who hold or held British passports remain in the camp, which is under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Rasheef Afrin, its co-director, told the Times that the six women and their children had been sent back to Britain.
Women walking through al-Roj detention centre in north-eastern Syria – Sam Tarling for The Telegraph
A British woman in the camp with her nine-year-old son, who claimed her citizenship had been revoked, said she had been left stateless and was no longer loyal to IS.
“I’m scared because I’m a different person. I’m not a Daeshi. I’m no one. I’m scared for my son,” she told CNN from inside the centre.
“I was born in England. I was raised in England… I don’t have anyone anywhere else. My mum, my dad, my brothers – all are in England. We are utterly and totally stateless.”
The Home Office stripped Begum of her citizenship in 2019 on national security grounds, leaving her unable to return to the UK.
However, there are concerns Begum could be freed from the camp amid fierce fighting for control of the region between the SDF, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, and government forces.
Last week, the SDF were forced to withdraw from al-Hol – a much larger detention camp south of al-Roj that houses around 23,500 people linked to IS – after an offensive by Syrian government forces.
A spokesman for the group blamed their retreat on the US’s decision to withdraw their support from the coalition, citing a “failure of the international community”.
The withdrawal led to jailbreaks at several IS detention camps across the region, which was home to an estimated 9,000 members, including commanders, and around 40,000 relatives of jihadists.
At al-Hol, dozens of IS wives were seen pulling down fences and escaping amid widespread looting and rioting.
Begum’s lawyers have started a fresh legal challenge at the European Court of Human Rights against the revocation of her British citizenship.
They have argued she was groomed and trafficked, and thereby should never have been stripped of her nationality.