Home Secretary Sajid Javid (Photo credit Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street)
Over a year ago, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Trafficked Britons in Syria received compelling evidence that the British Government neglected to take adequate action to prevent vulnerable nationals, including women and children, from being trafficked by ISIS.
An inquiry heard how public bodies failed to identify at-risk individuals and to notify parents and guardians of young women (many of whom were underage) being groomed.
The cases were not isolated, but a series of systemic failures to combat such covert operations.
This month, a new book by award-winning journalist Richard Kerbaj tracing the secret history of the Five Eyes international spy network, revealed that the most notorious victim, Shamima Begum, and two friends, were trafficked into IS-controlled Syria by a Canadian intelligence agent, Mohammed al-Rashed. In turn, the Metropolitan Police was tipped-off about his role shortly after the disappearance of Begum.
The revelation has led to unsavoury accusations that the government not only abandoned a British minor but covered-up her trafficking. Crucially, what did the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, know when he prevented her from returning by stripping her of her nationality?
On a local level, former Councillor, Rabina Khan, is among those calling for a public inquiry into the scandal, including holding to account Tower Hamlets for failing to protect Begum, who was 15 at the time, and other at-risk girls that were made wards of court at Bethnal Green Academy.
Parents are right to be concerned about the safety of their children in the care of others. Covering up cases of trafficking can only make it a much more worrying matter.
As Khan states, the revelation makes the case for the biggest failure of the Prevent Extremism policy in doing nothing to protect impressionable minds from the power of radical rhetoric. With no inquiries, there can be no lessons learned.
There is also the matter of an Institute of Race Relations report which found Muslims have become “second-class” citizens as a result of recently extended powers to strip people of their nationality in the wake of the Nationality and Borders Act coming onto the statutory books.
Yet again, the targets of the new powers are (largely) Muslims, who are effectively reduced to second class citizenship.
The message sent out, as in the case of Begum, is that Muslims can never be citizens, as in the case of the white population of the country, despite having British passports.
Pivotal questions arise about what the ministers knew and concealed about the groomed child-brides, what drove them to revoke the passport of the prime trafficking victim and refuse to allow her to return to the country or even legally challenge her passport revocation.
Successive Tory governments have transformed a nation once envied legal system into a quasi-apartheid entity, in which trafficked minors are victim-blamed and stripped of citizenship in the interest of political evasion.
