10,000 people call for all british children in north east syria to be brought home

Save the Children, 25th October 

Save the Children has spokespeople available for interview. Please contact: media@savethechildren.org.uk / 0207 012 6841 / (24hrs) 07831 650409

More than 10,000 people have emailed Home Secretary Priti Patel MP saying they want the UK government to urgently bring home all British children stranded in north-east Syria. These messages have been gathered in just five days, as part of reflecting a surge in support for a campaign co-ordinated by Save the Children. Through their call to action, the messages emphasise the need to act now to save innocent British children in Syria whose short lives have been full of violence and fear. The campaigners stress that there is a small window of time for the Government to take action and that with the right care, these children can start to play, learn and rebuild their lives. On Wednesday 23rd October the Home Secretary appeared to acknowledge publicly for the first time that the UK Government has a duty of care towards British children in North East Syria. It was suggested to Priti Patel by the Home Affairs Select Committee Chair Tim Loughton MP that ‘regardless of whether they are with their parents… they should be subject to the same considerations as if they were in your constituency or mine.’ Ms. Patel said she ‘would not dispute that at all'. 

Alison Griffin, Save the Children’s Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Campaigns, said: 

“Support has grown hugely in a short space of time. More than 10,000 people have called on our Government to rescue all British children from a life of pain and brutality in Syria and bring them home to recover in safety. “It’s encouraging to see the Home Secretary finally acknowledge the UK’s duty of care to these British children swept up in horrors far beyond their control. But it won’t mean anything unless the Government acts fast. The time to repatriate these children is now, while we still can.”

ENDS

-Save the Children has launched a petition calling on the UK Government to take urgent steps to repatriate British children from North East Syria