Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirms British orphans in Syria to return to UK
British orphans whose parents died in Syria are being returned to the UK, the Foreign Secretary has confirmed.
Dominic Raab last month told MPs that as long as there was "no security threat", children rescued from the fighting in northern Syria could be allowed to return home.
On Thursday evening, Mr Raab confirmed that the first children were now in the process of being returned to the UK.
In a statement, Mr Raab said: "These innocent, orphaned children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war.
"We have facilitated their return home because it was the right thing to do.
"Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life."
The Foreign Office has not released any further details at this stage.
In a previous Commons debate in October, former Brexit secretary David Davis said vulnerable British children risked "turning into terrorists" if they were not brought home from Syria.
Mr Davis told MPs that three of the estimated 60 British children thought to be in the region were orphans, adding that those who had not been orphaned "still deserve the United Kingdom's protection".