Begum moved from camp after extremist threats
There were fears other extremists’ wives in the camp might harm her
London: Shamima Begum has been moved out of a Syrian refugee camp after having threats made against her, according to her family’s lawyer.
The 19-year-old and her two-week-old son had been living in Al Hol camp in north-east Syria. However, Tasnime Akunjee, her UK lawyer, said fears that other extremists’ wives in the camp might harm her had prompted her move. “There was clearly something that warranted concern. We understand she and her child had been threatened by others,” Akunjee told The Daily Telegraph. “In terms of how effective this move might be in terms of her safety, well, we just don’t know.”
Sources in Al Hol said Begum left on Thursday, and a Swedish woman had been moved at the same time over similar concerns.
It is not clear where Begum was taken, although one possibility is the smaller Roj camp.
Begum came to Al Hol, home to around 51,000 people, after she fled from the final pocket of Daesh territory. She had been staying in a tarpaulin tent in a section for foreigners, living next to fellow English speakers from Canada and the Caribbean.
Begum’s husband, a 27-year-old Dutch Daesh fighter named Yago Riedijk, is being held in a Kurdish prison, separate from his wife and newborn son.
Western-backed forces have launched their final assault on Daesh’s last stronghold in eastern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led group that has been the US-led coalition’s main ally against Daesh, commenced their final assault on the village of Baghuz just after sunset on Friday night.