Brit ISIS brides among droves ESCAPING Syrian detention camps as jihadis around world crowdfund to pay smugglers
BRIT ISIS brides are among droves who have escaped from a Syrian detention camp.
At least one British woman is among escapees who have broken out of Al-Hol camp to reach rebel-held Idlib.
And jihadis have launched an online crowdfund to pay for smugglers to carry out missions, the Daily Telegraph reports.
One Brit, who calls herself Maryam al Britaniya, posted a video where she begs money after she was smuggled out of the camp in north-east Syria last year.
Hiding her face with a niqab, she said: “Being sent out from the Islamic State to the camps was by far one of the worst moments of my life.”
It comes after Brit twin sisters who travelled to Syria to join ISIS were caught by Kurdish forces attempting to sneak out of a detention camp.
Since the mass breakout, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has guarded prisons holding roughly 10,000 ISIS soldiers and nearly 70,000 women and children.
Among the detainees are several dozen British women and about 60 British children, according to aid groups.
In the video, the woman tells followers it is their obligation to those held in the camp.
“Help them and donate every month to help smuggle them out”, she pleads.
Escape efforts in the camp have escalated after notorious European women were moved to the higher security extension to Roj camp where escape has been said to be impossible.
Smugglers are said to charge around £12,000 to help families escape.
Social media has been a popular tool in petitioning for funds through Paypal and Bitcoin.
Accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram are dedicated to help raise awareness for the cause of the detainees.
One of the posts reads: “Only (£2,695) more is needed to free two of your sisters.”
The post then tells followers contributing to the amount may “gain you entry into paradise”.
Laith Alkhouri, a private sector counter terrorism expert said: “The online jihadist environment has been a whack-a-mole environment for a long time and more so now than ever.
“Telegram has achieved a great deal with the suspension of these accounts but instead of decreasing their activities, they expand onto new apps and then return to Telegram with backup accounts.”
He adds: “When you don’t know the source of funding or the recipient of the funding and you do know that the people who are potentially receiving it and the people sending it are ideological supporters of ISIS, then that should absolutely be a concern, even if it’s going to ‘helping women and children escape those detention camps’”.
It is currently unknown how many people have successfully escaped from the camps.
In October last year, it was reported that 100 women and children had escaped from holding camps in northern Syria.
Vera Mironova, a researcher from Harvard University who is in contact with female affiliates of IS said: “A lot of people escape, and when they escape, we don’t see any trace of them.
“As long as governments don’t take their citizens back, or actually track them, these women can disappear into thin air.”
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