Counter-Daesh Update

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s proper tribute to the fight of the Syrian Democratic Forces in our interests, noting that they have sacrificed 8,000 soldiers, including men and women, with 5,000 permanently disabled. The Foreign Secretary says that, having liberated all that territory from ISIS and then taken into custody thousands of foreigners, they are responsible for the investigation of those people. Surely the states from which those people come must bear the burden of investigating and prosecuting their own citizens who are being looked after. When will the Foreign Secretary instruct his officials to negotiate with the forces of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria the repatriation to the United Kingdom and the proper investigation and prosecution of British citizens who will range from the wholly innocent to the rather eccentric to the downright murderously dangerous, who need to be put in British custody as soon as reasonably practical?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. First, in terms of the courage of people who have been fighting in Syria, there is one group that we have not mentioned so far, and that is the White Helmets, who did an extraordinary job in Syria—not so much in the particular conflict against Daesh, but we can be proud that this country has resettled 29 families of White Helmets and was instrumental in getting about 400 White Helmets out of Syria towards the end of last year.[Official Report, 14 February 2019, Vol. 654, c. 11MC.]

The issue that my hon. Friend raises—I will not pretend to him; he speaks with huge knowledge of the region—is immensely complicated. The complicating factor is not that we do not want to take responsibility for these individuals, although frankly we would be happy if they never came back, because they have gone to fight for enemy forces who have been committing the most appalling atrocities. The issue we have is ensuring that they face justice, and sometimes that is not as easy as simply bringing them back here. That is why we are working through this as quickly as we can to try to find the right solution, to ensure that we can look the victims who have suffered in the face and say that we have brought the perpetrators of these atrocities to justice.