Clashes in northern Syria could pave the way for Islamic State extremists to sneak into the UK on small boats, a terror watchdog has warned. Chaos in the West Asian country has seen jailbreaks from prison camps holding ISIS fighters and their families after the Syrian government seized territory long-held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). As many as 200 detainees have escaped from detention centres in north-eastern regions, according to US military sources.
Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned that the situation posed a risk of ISIS members from Britain attempting to return across the Channel or via other smuggling routes. “Could they return to the UK?” he told The Telegraph. “In terms of the risk they present, one hopes that they have been identified and therefore are on a watchlist.”
The conflict in Syria has exploded in recent days (Image: Getty)
“Being on a watchlist is not a complete defence,” Mr Hall added. “They could come on a small boat or smuggle themselves in. That must be a risk.
He said that there is a question of the “wider reaches of their influence” adding that if they have experience of the UK they could be involved in “overseas attack planning”.
But he added that British-born IS members including Shamima Begum would likely find it very difficult to return to the UK because of the number of enforcement agencies they would have to evade on the journey from Syria to western Europe.
They could also face significant hurdles attempting to acquire the amount of money needed to pay smugglers to ship them across the Channel to Britain.
The majority of British men and women identified as IS devotees have been stripped of their UK citizenship, enabling border officials to bar from from legally entering the country.
The US-backed SDF announced on Monday that it had abandoned the biggest IS camp in the world, al-Hol, leaving around 30,000 former jihadis unguarded.
While Syrian army units are understood to have since secured the camp, the speed of the assault caught the West by surprise, with the US military scrambling to transfer 7,000 inmates from Syrian prisons to Iraq on Wednesday night.
A spokesperson for the UK Government said: “Our priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK. We will take action to prevent those who engage in activity that threatens our national security from entering the UK and robust security checks are in place.
“We remain committed to working with our partners in pursuit of the enduring defeat of Da’esh [IS].”
