US demands Britain take back its 600 ISIS supporters and their families in Syrian refugee camps
AMERICA is demanding the UK take back 600 British ISIS fighters and their family members living in Syrian refugee camps.
The huge number of former jihadis, their wives and children who hold or are entitled to British passports is revealed for the first time today.
The US has long demanded London repatriate its ISIS fighters caught on the battlefield as the warped caliphate collapsed, and jail them in the UK.
But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently stepped up the demand to include family members as well.
Donald Trump’s administration is determined to close down Syria’s giant ISIS refugee camps and don’t want any remnants of the Islamist terror network running amok in their country.
It emerged over the weekend that the American demand sparked a bitter row between Cabinet ministers during a National Security Council meeting.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab supports the US demand for Britain to repatriate the 600.
The Sun has also learned that he is backed by MI6 and other security chiefs who think it is better to keep an eye on the warped Brits back in the UK.
But Home Secretary Priti Patel is leading firm Cabinet opposition to it, and wants to set up special system of tribunals and courts in the region itself to handle them.
A senior Government source said: “A lot of these people are still very dangerous, and pose a national security risk to the United Kingdom.
“What would we do with them if they all came back, and where would we put them? How much would all that cost? It would be very unpopular.
“We cannot trust our de-radicalisation programme, which has had patchy results at best in the past.”
At least 900 British citizens in total fled to join up with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The Sun Says
BRITAIN must not let 600 IS family members back home.
We have every sympathy for the children stranded in Syrian camps. They are innocent.
The widows of IS terrorists are not. They enabled or promoted the most wicked ideology since Nazism.
They abandoned the UK and would happily destroy it. If Shamima Begum is typical, their only regret is that IS lost.
Why should taxpayers foot the bill to return them to Western comfort, to clothe and feed them in prison or police them 24/7 to ensure they pose no risk?
Home Secretary Priti Patel is right to fight it.
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The Government’s most recent public assessment 18 months ago found that one in five of those were killed on the battlefield or in coalition air strikes, and 400 had returned home.
It was thought that only around 350 were still unaccounted for, but the most recent secret assessment by intelligence agencies has discovered that number has close to doubled to more than 600, with all the their new offspring counted.
It is understood that the repatriation would not have to include notorious ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who has now been stripped of her British passport.
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