Islamic State fighters who return to the UK must face justice, committee says

Islamic State fighters who return to the UK after killings, terror attacks and persecuting minorities must face justice, a committee of MPs and peers has said.

More than 400 people who fought for the group, also called ISIS and Daesh, are thought to have then returned to the UK, after travelling to the Middle East.

ISIS once held swathes of land in Syria and Iraq and was responsible for widespread campaigns of terror, murder, and rape.

This often targeted minority religious groups like the Yazidis.

Sky News recently released a documentary on ISIS and the Yazidis, led by special correspondent Alex Crawford.

Crawford gave evidence to parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), which in a new report has warned that none of the ISIS supporters who had made their way back to the UK had been successfully prosecuted.

It called on the government to take steps to ensure they can be tried in British courts, after ministers previously claimed such crimes were “best investigated and prosecuted under local laws” – meaning abroad.

‘The UK cannot wash its hands of this’

“Where the UK has jurisdiction over international crimes, the UK should seek to investigate and prosecute such crimes,” the committee’s latest report said.

However, the report said that UK courts faced a “key barrier” to delivering justice on war crimes and genocide.

This was because it is not possible to prosecute people for these crimes unless they are UK nationals, residents or “subject to service personnel laws”.

The committee said ministers should use the Crime and Policing Bill, currently making its way through parliament, to amend the law.

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Lord Alton, chairman of the JCHR, 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 [ISIS] 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.”

The committee added that more must also be done to repatriate children held in camps in northeast Syria where former ISIS fighters and their families are being held.

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‘There are no rights for anything’

Crawford was one of those who gave evidence to the committee.

She first met Yazidi women captured by ISIS in 2014, and has covered the topic a number of times since, including most recently in the 10 Years Of Darkness: ISIS & The Yazidis documentary.

She told the committee the camps in northeast Syria were “filled with hopelessness and helplessness, and a really strong anger and frustration”.

“There are multiple human rights concerns,” she said, adding that those living there essentially had no rights.

She went on: “There is no right of freedom. There is no right to access to legal representation. There are no rights for anything.

“Many of the children – I do not know how many – have been born there.

“They are very young – younger than six – so many of them have been born there in, to be honest, very dirty, disgusting conditions.”