British women and children trafficked to terrorist organisations abroad would be legally excluded from returning to Britain under the government’s immigration bill, The Times can reveal.
The Nationality and Borders Bill, which passed its second reading last week, gives the home secretary the power to deny victims protection under the Modern Slavery Act if they are trafficked by a terrorist organisation, by deeming them a threat to national security. Legal experts believe that the clause is aimed at preventing the return of dozens of British women and children trafficked to Syria by Islamic State and forced into marriage, sexual slavery and slave labour.
Maya Foa, director of the legal charity Reprieve, called the new legislation “a cynical attempt to put that error in law on the statute book” to prevent British women and children from returning from camps in Syria. “It’s an indicator they know many, many people were trafficked by Isis,” she said.
Read the full story at the Times.