Terror watchdog lawyer says UK should consider allowing IS members to come home

The UK government’s independent terrorism legislation reviewer has said politicians should ‘take a step back’ to look at the bigger picture when it comes to stateless persons and national security.

“Repatriation would not be moral absolution, if someone came back it wouldn’t prevent them from potentially being prosecuted for what they’ve done,” Mr Hall told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight programme.

“It could be quite a pragmatic decision in the overall interests of national security to bring someone back.”

Shamima Begum

His comments come after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage admitted he had been “thoughtful” when asked if the UK should consider bringing back UK woman Shamima Begum.

Mr Farage said that “instinctively” it is not something he would want to do but he is “now thoughtful” about the matter.

Ms Begum was disallowed to challenge the removal of her British citizenship at the Supreme Court, judges ruled in August last year.

The now-25-year-old hoped to overturn the Government’s decision to revoke her citizenship on national security grounds after she travelled to Syria as a 15-year-old to join the Islamic State group.

Mr Hall went on to outlay the pros and cons of allowing stateless persons to return to the UK.

“There is obviously some national security benefit of leaving people there because you don’t have to monitor them,” he said.

“On the other hand, there haven’t yet been any attacks in Europe by anyone who has been repatriated in this way and if they are left there… and then they escape, they would be much more dangerous, actually, to the UK.”

Earlier this week, Donald Trump’s incoming counter-terrorism chief called for the repatriation of British members of the so-called Islamic State being held in Syrian prison camps.

Sebastian Gorka said that any nation that wishes to be seen as a “serious ally” of the US should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by taking back citizens currently in the north east of Syria.

Badenoch

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that a Conservative government with her as leader “will never take back” Ms Begum.

She added: “Citizenship means committing to a country and wanting its success. It’s not an international travel document for crime tourism.”

In an interview with The Times, Mr Gorka said: “Any nation which wishes to be seen to be a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment” when asked if the UK should be forced to accept Isis members back.

“That is doubly so for the UK which has a very special place in President Trump’s heart and we would all wish to see the ‘special relationship’ fully re-established.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that Ms Begum “will not be coming back to the UK”.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain on Thursday, he said: “It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national.

“We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We’re really clear about that.

“We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.”

Upheaval

Ms Begum was 15 when she travelled from Bethnal Green, east London, into territory controlled by IS in 2015.

She was “married off” to an IS fighter and was stripped of her British citizenship in February 2019.

The upheaval in Syria following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime has put the future of the camps holding IS-linked prisoners in doubt.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, the anti-Assad group allied with the West, has been guarding tens of thousands of captured foreign IS members and their children in sprawling camps and detention centres.