LONDON: The UK must end its funding of detention camps in Syria, a former cabinet minister urged the British foreign secretary on Sunday.<\/p>\n
As well as ending its financial backing for the \u201cillegal detention\u201d of children in the Kurdish-run camps, the government must disclose how many British minors are currently residing in north-east Syria, David Davis said in a letter to James Cleverly.<\/p>\n
Davis wrote that he was disappointed the UK\u2019s Middle East minister, Lord Tariq Ahmad, had not responded to a request to confirm the number of British children being held in the Syrian camps, the Guardian newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish boys are being held in dire conditions, in overcrowded cells of 20-25 people, with poor ventilation and open latrines, and limited access to food and medical care,\u201d he said. \u201cSome boys are being detained in cells with adult men. Boys in these prisons are at risk of violence, sexual violence, trafficking, forced recruitment, and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said a change of policy was needed to stop \u201carbitrary and collective punishment\u201d in the camps, which was a \u201cBritish taxpayer-funded breach of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cCondemning British families to indefinite detention without trial is inconsistent with British values and support for the rule of law, Repatriating British families is the only sensible choice for UK and global security.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has previously said \u201crepatriation is the only durable solution\u201d and that keeping families detained in the camps could see a resurgence of Daesh and pose a significant global security risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: The UK must end its funding of detention camps in Syria, a former cabinet minister urged the British foreign secretary on Sunday. As well as ending its financial backing for the \u201cillegal detention\u201d of children in the Kurdish-run camps, the government must disclose how many British minors are currently residing in north-east Syria, David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-347687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n