Phone messages reveal detained British mothers fear death in Syrian camp

Exclusive: testimonies describing malnourishment and disease to renew pressure on government to repatriate dozens of Britons, many of them children.

 

British mothers held in a prison camp in north-east Syria fear that they may die in detention after an “alarming” deterioration in living conditions.

Their testimony – revealed in a series of WhatsApp messages seen by the Guardian – will place fresh pressure on the UK government to repatriate them and their children.

In one message, sent last September, a British mother in her 20s says she feels she has been abandoned by the UK authorities. “I’m going to die here if they don’t get me out soon,” the message said, which was sent to UK family members from the Syrian prison camp Roj. “I really, really want to go back and be with you guys. I really need hospital care.”

Others, sent from a handful of British mothers to the UK throughout 2023, portray dire conditions within the controversial camp, describing malnourished children, premature deaths from treatable diseases, and toxic fumes from nearby oilfields triggering asthma, lung inflammations and suspected deaths.

An estimated 60 Britons are in Roj, including Shamima Begum, who left London in 2015 to join Islamic State in Syria as a teenager. Of these, about 40 are children, with most aged under 10 and detained indefinitely in the camp since the collapse of Islamic State four years ago.

Most European countries, including France and Spain, along with the US, have repatriated their citizens to face justice, concerned about the inhumane conditions, and that not bringing them home undermines global efforts to fight terrorism.