British IS brides ‘repatriated’ from Syrian prison camps
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 …
