UN calls for international community to ‘take responsibility’ for children of Isis members in Syria

UN says more than 2,500 foreign children stuck in Syrian camps are in desperate need of help

Civilians flee Isis’s last enclave in Baghouz as Syrian Democratic Forces battle to liberate the village (AFP/Getty)

The United Nations has urged the international community to take responsibility for the children of their citizens who joined Isis in Syria, as thousands remain stranded in unsafe camps.

An estimated 30 British children are currently languishing in camps across the Kurdish-held north of the country, most of whom emerged with their parents from the Isis caliphate in its dying days.

The British government has so far refused to repatriate any of its citizens who went to join Isis, citing security fears. Separating the children from their parents would also raise legal questions.

The UN’s humanitarian envoy for Syria warned on Thursday that some 2,500 foreign children stuck in the camps are in desperate need of help, and made a “special plea” to the international community to take responsibility for their own citizens.

“Children should be treated first and foremost as victims” and “irrespective of family affiliation”, said Panos Moumtzis, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis.

“There is a prime responsibility of states vis-a-vis their own nationals. Really nobody should be rendered stateless and every effort should be made to find a solution for these people,” he told a Geneva news briefing.

The plight of British children stuck in Syria made the headlines last month when the infant child of Shamima Begum, named Jarrah, died in one of the camps. The British teenager fled her home in Bethnal Green to join Isis in Syria in 2015.

In the caliphate’s final days, thousands of women and children fled the last Isis stronghold in Baghouz, eastern Syria. Ms Begum arrived heavily pregnant at the al-Hol camp in early February, after leaving the last-held areas under the terror group’s control. She gave birth to her son there shortly after, having already lost two children.

Labour’s shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, blamed the death on the “callous” decision to strip Ms Begum of her citizenship, which rendered her effectively stateless.

“It is against international law to make someone stateless, and now an innocent child has died as a result of a British woman being stripped of her citizenship,” Ms Abbott said.

Some 211 children have died at the camp or on the way to it since December, the latest UN figures show, most of malnutrition or disease.

Aid groups have been sounding the alarm over conditions in the camps for months. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates at the largest of those facilities, al-Hol camp, said last month that it was at “breaking point”.

“We have seen a staggering number of children die on the journey to al-Hol camp due to a combination of malnutrition and hypothermia,” said Misty Buswell, the IRC’s Middle East advocacy director.

“There is now an urgent need for thousands more family tents to get to al-Hol to help shelter the latest arrivals as well as increased funding to support the health crisis unfolding at the camp.”

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish and Arab militia backed by the UK in the fight against Isis, has said previously that it does not have the resources to hold foreign Isis members and their families indefinitely.

A UK government spokesperson told The Independent: “The government does not have a consular presence within Syria from which to provide consular assistance. The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Syria, and that British nationals should leave by any practical means. We will not put British officials’ lives at risk to assist those who have left the UK to join a proscribed terrorist organisation.”

“If a British child who has been in Syria is able to seek consular assistance outside of Syria, then we would work with local and UK authorities to facilitate their return if requested,” the spokesperson added.