British Fighters in Syria Face Passport Ban, MPs Demand

 Local Editor

UK politicians demanded that Britons fighting in Syria have their passports withdrawn, calling the step "a vital tool" in preventing people from joining foreign conflicts, a report published from the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee according to The Guardian on Friday.
 
The report by the House of Commons home affairs committee said the number of Britons travelling to Syria has reached alarming levels, with British MPs demanding tougher penalties to punish Britons for joining Syrian war and deter those who are considering it.

It said the number of UK citizens and Westerners travelling to fight in foreign conflicts had reached "alarming levels unlike anything seen in recent years."

A cross-party group of MPs will call for more Britons travelling to fight in Syria to have their passports revoked, as two more were reported to have been killed.
The group of politicians said in the report: "We require an immediate response targeted at dissuading and preventing those who wish to go to fight from going; helping countries who are key to intercepting those who are entering Syria, and ensuring those who return do not present a danger to the UK."

It proposes greater co-ordination with the countries that act as transit points: Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
It also said: "Given that the estimates of foreign fighters are in the low hundreds, we are surprised that it [the power to revoke passports] has only been used 14 times since April 2013 and recommend that, in all appropriate circumstances where there is evidence, the power is utilized as an exceptional preventative and temporary measure."

The report also recommended the use of "spotters" - people placed along the Syrian border to monitor individuals crossing it.
"We have been impressed by the efforts made to prevent football hooliganism in foreign countries by sending 'spotters' to help pick out those at risk of committing criminal acts and believe similar practical help would be beneficial in the fight against terrorism," the MPs say.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports that two more Britons had been killed and it is investigating. They would be the fourth and fifth Britons killed in Syria this year, three of them the result of rebel infighting.

Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, which monitors overseas fighters, said the two had been members of the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL] extremist group which has been involved with clashes with the so-called "al-Nusra Front."

The government also needs a clear strategy for dealing with foreign fighters on their return, the MPs say. "We are concerned that their experiences may well make them vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder, thereby increasing their vulnerability to radicalization."
The minister for security and immigration, James Brokenshire, in written evidence published with the report, noted that the EU counterterrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove estimated that more than 2,000 Europeans had travelled to Syria, with the largest numbers coming from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team