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The British police have asked for the help of Muslim women to stop young people travelling to Syria to be a part of the conflict in the country. The move follows a steep increase in arrests regarding the Syrian conflict.
There has been an increase in the number of British people arrested returning from or travelling to Syria, from 25 last year to 40 in the first three months of this year. A lot of the people arrested were later handed terrorism-related charges. Counter-terrorism officials have launched a nation-wide campaign to increase awareness on the risks involved in travelling to Syria, especially for the people who want to offer some humanitarian aid.
Last week, Abubaker Deghayes, who lives in Brighton in England, said that three of his sons had gone to Syria to fight, with one of them, 18-year-old Abdullah Deghayes, having died in battle earlier this month. In the same battle, Abdullah’s brother, 20-year-old Amer Deghayes, was injured by a bullet wound to his stomach.
Senior National Coordinator for counter-terrorism Helen Ball said “we are increasingly concerned about the numbers of young people who have or are intending to travel to Syria to join the conflict. We want to ensure that people, particularly women, who are concerned about their loved ones are given enough information about what they can do to prevent this from happening. We want to increase their confidence in the police and partners to encourage them to come forward so that we can intervene and help. This is not about criminalising people, it is about preventing tragedies.”
According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, somewhere between 200 and 366 British nationals have travelled to Syria to take part in the conflict. On Thursday, the police intend to hold meetings with women from several communities and from government offices and charity groups concerned with preventing extremism.
