LONDON: More than 400 former Daesh fighters have returned to Britain without facing prosecution, a group of MPs and peers has warned, calling for legal changes to ensure those guilty of war crimes and genocide face justice in the UK.
Hundreds of British nationals over the past decade traveled to join Daesh, which once held vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.
The terror group committed campaigns of murder and rape against minority groups such as the Yazidis.
Yet of the more than 400 former members of the group who have since returned to the UK, none have been prosecuted for their crimes, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
The parliamentary joint committee on human rights raised the alarm over the lack of justice and called on the government to take urgent measures to address the issue.
Former Daesh fighters must face justice in the UK rather than in Syria and Iraq, the committee said.
Government ministers have previously argued that Daesh members should be investigated and prosecuted under local laws in Middle Eastern countries. But the committee said this is unlikely to happen in the countries where Daesh held territory.
“Where the UK has jurisdiction over international crimes, the UK should seek to investigate and prosecute such crimes,” a report by the committee said.
However, British courts face a “key barrier” when trying to deal with cases of war crimes and genocide because the accused must be UK nationals, residents or “subject to service personnel laws.”
This can be resolved by amending the Crime and Policing Bill now making its way through Parliament, the committee said.
Lord Alton, the committee’s chairman, said: “This is not something the UK can simply wash its hands of because it happened overseas. We know that British nationals committed the most horrendous crimes in Iraq and Syria under the Daesh regime and we have a duty to see them brought to justice.
“To date, no Daesh fighters have been successfully prosecuted for international crimes in the UK and we find this unacceptable.”
As well as prosecuting former Daesh fighters, the committee called for greater government transparency over the deprivation of citizenship.
The UK on a number of occasions has stripped British nationals of their citizenship because of ties to Daesh.
The case of Shamima Begum, who traveled to join Daesh aged 15, is the most prominent example.
More must also be done to repatriate children from camps in northeast Syria, the committee said.
Lord Alton highlighted the “deplorable” conditions in the camps, where the families of former Daesh fighters are detained.
“It is in the UK’s interest to ensure they do not become a new generation of the radicalized and they must be brought home,” he added.
