British child is repatriated to the UK from Syria after being orphaned

The Home Office has repatriated an orphaned British child from Syria for the first time since November.

The child, who cannot be identified, was brought back to the UK after the Islamic State collapsed.

The Guardian reports that Save The Children had been looking after the child at a care centre in north-east Syria.

In a Home Office statement, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that his department would be working to bring other unaccompanied British children back from Syria.

He said: ‘These are children who have experienced the worst horrors of war.’

The child’s mother also cannot be identified, but it is believed she originally left Britain to join the Islamic State but it is not currently known where she is. 

The Foreign Secretary also took to Twitter to announce the news, saying: ‘Safely facilitating the return of orphans or unaccompanied British children, where possible, is the right thing to do.’

The child is the first to be repatriated to Britain from Syria since November when a small number were also brought back to the country.

At the time Dr Abdulkarim Omar, head of foreign relations in the Kurdish-led area of northern Syria, tweeted a photo of himself with the UK’s special representative for Syria Martin Longden, saying ‘three British orphans from ISIS parents were handed over to a delegation representing the British Foreign Ministry.’

The children were rescued with the help of SAS troops, who escorted Foreign Office staff into the region in armoured vehicles, the Sun revealed.

In a statement published in November, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: ‘These innocent, orphaned, children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war.

‘We have facilitated their return home, because it was the right thing to do. Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life.’