British citizens in Syria are not someone else’s problem – but our government seeks to abandon them

The government is pushing through a bill that means it doesn’t have to tell people if their citizenship has been stripped. It sets a terrifying precedent, writes Bel Trew

Activists say children are being unjustly punished by the UK government (Bel Trew)

The family of Sara, a British mother held in a detention camp in northeast Syria, only found out by chance that her citizenship had been stripped, over a year after it had happened. She told me no one from the government contacted her or any of her relatives to inform her of a decision that would alter her life forever. They only found out because one of her relatives checked and was given the damning news.

I met Sara in Roj, a sprawling camp in northeast Syria that is holding foreigners with connections to the so-called Islamic State. They all lived under the caliphate; Sara said she followed her husband to Raqqa.

She is not the only person held there to accidentally discover they are no longer British. A grandmother from the north of England – known in her legal case as D4 – who lives in the same detention camp only found out over a year later because her lawyers tried to arrange her repatriation. They were told that this was impossible as she was no longer British.

That decision was successfully appealed in August; the High Court ruled that the government had gone beyond its legal powers by removing her British nationality without telling her. But that may not be the case for long. The government is pushing through a new bill that means, in certain circumstances, it doesn’t have to tell citizens if their citizenship has been stripped, for example if the authorities claim there is no way of communicating with someone or if it is deemed “in the public interest”.

The government says this is all part of efforts to combat extremist groups such as Isis. The Home Office told The Independent: “British citizenship is a privilege, not a right. Deprivation of citizenship on conducive grounds is rightly reserved for those who pose a threat to the UK or whose conduct involves very high harm.”

But rights groups such as Reprieve are fighting this trend of citizenship stripping and the new bill, which would allow it to happen pretty much secretly. They say the wording of the bill is designed to inflict “maximum harm and trauma” on the person, their children and their families, as it would also effectively cancel chances of appeal, given the deadline to lodge one could run out before the individual becomes aware they are no longer British.

They are also particularly concerned for the women and their children in Roj Camp. Reprieve published an investigation this year which found that more than 60 per cent of British women in detention in northeast Syria are victims of trafficking by Isis. If their citizenships are stripped without them even being informed, it effectively means that trafficking will go unpunished and could encourage designated terrorist groups to do the same in future.

And even if the state does believe certain individuals have committed crimes, there should be a proper judicial process whereby they are brought back to the UK to stand a free and fair trial. Stripping them of their citizenship and dumping them in a desert in northeast Syria removes their right to argue their case, to defend themselves effectively – it makes them guilty by default. It also makes them someone else’s problem.

The Syrian Kurdish authorities that run the camps have repeatedly told me they cannot indefinitely control these sprawling areas that are currently home to thousands of foreign citizens who have been abandoned by their countries. The situation is particularly acute in al-Hol, the larger sister camp to Roj, where murder, assault, extortion and arson are on the rise as conditions become increasingly desperate. The Kurds are concerned about radicalisation and violence. Our citizens are not their responsibility.

This also punishes the children who are stuck with their mothers. It is not humane to remove children from their caregivers and bring them back to the UK on their own. Family units should be brought back together – even if the parents face trial.

It also could make people stateless and vulnerable to punishments that the UK is vehemently against. Take the case of Shamima Begum, who Reprieve says is a victim of trafficking as she was just 15 when she was groomed online and encouraged to travel to Syria to join Isis. After the UK stripped her citizenship, Bangladesh made it very clear they want “nothing to do” with her and the foreign minister has even said she would “face the death penalty” for terrorism if she stepped foot in the country.

All of these are reasons why we should all be concerned by this bill. It could set a dangerous precedent for all of us. We do not know how this power could be wielded in the future. It also effectively sets up a two-tiered standard of British nationality.

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This law only applies to UK-born dual nationals or those who have a claim to a second nationality. In this instance – ie the women I have met in camps in northeast Syria whose citizenships have been revoked – that predominantly means they are the children of immigrants. This effectively creates a kind of second-class citizenship that is conditional and can be easily revoked.

Right now the UK is an outlier in behaving like this; even our closest allies like the US have taken their citizens home to face trial. To be rehabilitated. To be reintegrated.

Even from a purely selfish perspective, it is safer for the UK that we bring our citizens home, we take responsibility for what happened, we rehabilitate people, we learn from history to make sure it is not repeated again.

I have spoken to many of the British women in camps in Syria face to face, I have interviewed local and foreign Isis sympathisers across the Middle East and north Africa, I have met the people who lived under the so-called caliphate or under the rule of other jihadi groups. I cannot emphasise this enough: alienating and abandoning people and their children in a desert with no hope and no future will do nothing but breed more hatred, violence and extremism. This is not right and not in the best interests of anyone.