LONDON: The UK government is being asked to repatriate a family stuck in a detention camp on the Syria-Iraq border who have contracted COVID-19.
UK charity Reprieve said the family, including a toddler with breathing difficulties and another member with asthma, were experiencing serious symptoms and had no access to proper healthcare in the camp.
The family, who the charity says were trafficked into territory formerly held by Daesh, faces a “real risk of life-threatening illness, and possibly death.”
Maya Foa, executive director of Reprieve, told The Guardian: “This is a family which is very likely to include victims of trafficking and they have been in this camp for a few years now. They all have roots in the UK. They are British and I have spent time with them in the camp.”
She added: “As well as the imperative to bring them back to receive treatment, surely the British government should also now be looking to investigate trafficking, and they would be happy to speak to the authorities.”
The plea comes as a group of UK politicians try to pressure the government to help British citizens return home from the region.
Around 800 have traveled to Daesh territory since the group emerged. Reprieve says 25 adults, mainly women, and 35 children are still there.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative peer, said: “I would absolutely make the case on compassionate grounds for why British nationals should not be left in the middle of a pandemic stateless in the middle of a desert.”
She added: “We cannot hold ourselves up as a bastion for our policy against trafficking, modern-day slavery and sexual violence in conflict … and then simply close our eyes when it comes to our own citizens being subjected to the very actions that we are campaigning against.”
Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell said: “There is a danger that if these people are left stranded in an ungoverned space, they could be prey to terrorists and weaponized against us, which is why it’s so important to agree with the arguments which the Americans have made about bringing them back to their country of origin.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure the safety and security of the UK. Those who remain in Syria include dangerous individuals who chose to stay to fight or otherwise support a group that committed atrocious crimes including butchering and beheading innocent civilians.
“Where we become aware of British unaccompanied or orphaned children, or if British children are able to seek consular assistance, we will work to facilitate their return, subject to national security concerns.”
