Fifty-six women and girls are believed to have travelled to Syria from the UK last year, police said as they released a video of female Syrian refugees asking why any woman would want to take her family to a war zone.
The latest figures from national counter-terrorism police showed women and girls were continuing to travel to Syria in worrying numbers. Figures released last July showed 43 females were thought to have gone to Syria in the previous 12 months.
“We are deeply concerned about the numbers of girls, young women and also families who are taking the decision to go to Syria, unaware of the dangers they face when they arrive and the fact that they are unlikely to ever be able to return home to their devastated wider families,” said Helen Ball, deputy assistant commissioner.
About 4,000 westerners are thought to have joined Islamic State, including 550 women. In February, three London schoolgirls – Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 – went to Syria. Some are now thought to be married to Isis extremists.
The short film released by the police in association with the charity Families Against Stress and Trauma (Fast) aims to counter Isis recruitment propaganda aimed at young girls and women in the west. It features three Syrian female refugees speaking in Arabic with subtitles.
“We were living under very bad circumstances and it was getting worse by the day,” says Fatten, one of the three refugees. “My son couldn’t get the medical treatment he urgently needed.”
Isaaf says: “Your children are now living in security (in Britain), are provided with schools, a nice life and beautiful future. So why are you taking them to a war zone?”
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