Speaking on national security at Scotland Yard headquarters in London UK, Home Secretary Sajid Javid pointed out that British nationals are continuing to travel to ISIS territories in Syria. Through his words, he declared a warning to all citizens of Britain and asked them to leave conflict-ridden territories. Failing which, an individual may land up in jail for 10 years.
According to NDTV, Javid hailed the Britain security forces saying that they have foiled 19 major terrorist attacks in the past two years.
“Each and every day, our security services fight against terror – from large international terrorist groups, to radicalised individuals. In the past two years, they have foiled 19 major terrorist attacks – 14 of them Islamist, and five of them motivated by extreme right-wing ideologies.”
“And despite this impressive work, the tempo of terrorist activity is increasing.”
Traveling to Idlib and the northeast of Syria have also been banned by the Home Secretary.
Javid also revealed UK’s new Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act, which gives him the power to “designate” any region in the world as offensive for British nationals to be there.
“I’ve asked my officials to work closely with CT (Counter-Terrorism) policing and intelligence agencies to urgently review the case for exercising this power in relation to Syria, with a particular focus on Idlib and the North East.”
“So, anyone who is in these areas without a legitimate reason should be on notice. I can also see that there may be a case in the future for considering designating parts of West Africa.”
The act came after the case of Bangladeshi-origin British schoolgirl Shamima Begum. Four years ago, Begum had travelled to the ISIS-controlled region but was discovered in a detention camp earlier this year. She was then stripped of her British citizenship and her London-based family has launched a legal bid to bring her back. Speaking about the same, Javid said,
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“Deprivation is never a step that is taken lightly…When we assess that someone poses a real threat, we will work to stop them from returning. Sometimes to do that I have to deprive people of their British nationality.”
Hence, if a British national is detained by the Syrian Defence Forces in a region designated under the new UK act, they will be unable to leave and return to the UK. However, a person already in a designated area at the time of designation will not commit an offence if they leave the area within one month of such an order being made.
Sajid Javid also pointed out that the world needs to fight unitedly to demolish terror groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS who continue to be a threat.