According to a report in the a group of MPs has formed an All Party Parliamentary Group for Trafficked Britons in Syria that will call for a change in approach to individuals like Bethnal Green Academy schoolgirl Shamima Begum.
Victims not terrorists
The group will challenge the Government to take a different approach to the women still trapped in Syrian camps and consider them as victims.
The Standard reports that the All Parliamentary Group for Trafficked Britons in Syria consists of several former Conservative cabinet ministers, a former Head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a crossbench peer and Lyn Brown, the West Ham Labour MP and shadow justice minister.
There are around 15 British families still detained in Syria, many of whom were forced or groomed into leaving the UK.
Don’t mention Bethnal Green Academy!
Shamima Begum was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2015 when she and two of her friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, all students at Bethnal Green Academy, left their homes and families and made their way to Syria.
Kadiza was killed in an airstrike and Amira is still alive although it has been reported that she also perished in the conflict.
After Shamima was discovered in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019 the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citzenship, saying that this would make a great tabloid headline and win a few votes that she was a significant national security risk.
Recent applications to allow Shamima back in the UK to challenge the loss of her citizenship failed.
The line sold by the establishment is that Shamima, Kadiza and Amira were radicalised by anonymous persons online.
Investigative work by the East End Enquirer and members of our community lead us to believe that this is untrue.
Who radicalised Shamima, Kadiza and Amira?
Do you know how Shamima, Kadiza and Amira were radicalised? Someone in our community does. We need facts and evidence, not rumour and guesses.
Please get in touch with the Enquirer hello@eastendenquirer.org so we can establish the truth and keep our country, our community and our children safe. All information will be treated in total confidence.
Cases do not meet threshold
Tower Hamlets Council has refused to undertake a Serious Case Review to ascertain the facts behind the three girls fleeing to Syria saying that the cases do not meet their threshold for a review.
Politically inconvenient?
In reality we understand that the real reason Serious Case Reviews have not been undertaken is because their findings would be politically inconvenient.
This refusal also means that those who radicalised the three girls, and presumably others, are alive and well and quite possibly in our community.
Wonder what they are up to?
Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) were established under the Children Act (2004) to review cases where a child dies and abuse or neglect is known or suspected or where a child has not died, but has come to serious harm as a result of abuse or neglect.
A Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) can commission a review for ‘any case where it suspects anything can be learned to improve local practice.’
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Trafficked Britons in Syria will be formally launched next week.
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As community journalists we do exactly what it says on our tin – we work for the community.
In Tower Hamlets, which covers most of London’s East End, that means we spend a lot of time investigating allegations of political corruption.
It is an unfortunate fact that the poorest local authority in the country is still beset by the highest levels of corruption.
As Love Wapping we were instrumental in exposing the electoral corruption of Mayor Lutfur Rahman.
