Child Suicide Bombers

David Hanson Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. I offer my genuine thanks to the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Roger Mullin) for raising this topic. His contributions and those of the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) highlighted the chilling nature of this war crime, which is being perpetrated in many regions of Africa and the middle east, and which, as the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath mentioned, sadly also finds origins in the United Kingdom. We need a measured approach to the problem, but we must recognise that it exists, quantify it and look at how the UK Government can support efforts, in-region and across the world, to reduce and stop the crime.

The hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath mentioned several countries—Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chad, to name just a few—where child suicide bombers are now being used. I had not noticed until my preparation for the debate this morning that there was a report only this weekend of women and child suicide bombers killing dozens of Nigerian refugees in Chad. The article states:

“Two women and children were among the five suicide bombers who attacked the village’s busiest markets”

in the Baga Sola region of Chad, where 36 people were killed this weekend. That emphasises the need to quantify, record and assess where, how and when child suicide bombers are used, and to take a proactive response to addressing the problem.

According to recent reports, ISIS has trained more than 1,000 children to become suicide bombers over the past six months, as the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath mentioned. Action on Armed Violence and UNICEF have taken a strong interest in the matter. In a report produced in August this year with the title “2015: an epidemic of suicide bombers”, Action on Armed Violence stated:

“Between January and the end of July this year, over 5,000 civilians have been killed and injured by suicide bombings globally. This is a 45% increase from the same period in 2014”.

That can be traced back to the increasing use of suicide attacks by militant rogue elements, such as ISIS/Daesh, which, as the hon. Gentleman mentioned, is now training people under the soubriquet “Cubs of the Caliphate”. The United Nations Human Rights Council has found that ISIL is recruiting

“children into armed roles under the guise of education”

and that children are being

“deployed in active combat during military operations, including suicide missions.”

The Iraqi Independent High Commission for Human Rights has estimated that 1,000 children have been trained to become suicide bombers.

It is clear from the events in Chad this weekend that Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and southern Chad is using child suicide bombers to a greater extent. In fact, 75% of the suicide attacks in Nigeria in the past 12 months have been undertaken by children, all of whom, as the hon. Gentleman pertinently highlighted, were girls. That says something about the mindset of the individuals who carry out the attacks. Boko Haram is exporting these practices to the neighbouring African nations of Chad and Cameroon, neither of which had experienced suicide attacks before 2015.

The UNICEF representative in Nigeria has made the important point that child suicide bombers are as much victims of the terrorist activity as they are potential perpetrators. We should remember that and look at how we can address the problem. As the hon. Members for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, for Strangford and for Glasgow North have said, it is one thing for an adult over the age of 18 to determine that they will undertake such activity. Throughout history, there have been kamikaze pilots, suicide attacks and suicide protests. However, for children—particularly girls—to be identified, groomed, trained and sacrificed in these attacks is a new and horrific development. We should remember that in our discussions.

This is an international problem. Who would have thought, Mr Evans, when you and I arrived in the House 23 years ago, that there would be a situation such as this? A child has been groomed in Dewsbury, travelled to an area of the world where there is an international terrorist conflict and, in that part of the world, has blown themselves up to support a cause against the interests of the United Kingdom. Who would have thought, 23 years ago, that that would happen?

There are no party divisions on this issue; something has changed and something needs addressing. The difficult question for all of us is: what can that be? If there were an easy solution, we would undertake it. The question is, what could that solution be? I will throw a few ideas on the table, which I hope will help the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. We cannot necessarily solve this problem, but we can play a role in helping to understand and address it.

The first suggestion that the Minister could seriously consider, or at least comment on, was made by the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath: do we know how many attacks involving children occur each year? If we see press reports of a suicide attack in a particular country, do we know whether it was undertaken by a child or an adult? Why does that matter? It matters because an attack undertaken by an adult may require a different level of motivation and response than that required in an attack undertaken by a child, which might be due to different circumstances.

All such attacks are treated the same in terms of press reports, news response and the impact on families such as the Minister’s family. We need to differentiate between them and examine which suicide attacks are undertaken by children and why. The UK Government will not make that assessment alone, but I welcome the Minister’s contribution on the idea of getting a proper assessment, through the United Nations and others, of what action is taken and how.

The second thing is a more fundamental issue that addresses not only child suicide bombers, but the development of terrorism and radicalisation generally: the use of the internet, promotional material and social media, and how that is regulated and monitored. Those are sensitive and difficult topics. The Government will look at those matters through Home Office legislation and will continue to do so on an international basis, but there has to be a balance between the freedom to promote ideas, the freedom to say things and the freedom to promote radicalisation via the internet and social media. I welcome the Minister’s contribution on that. We need an assessment of how we can deal with the issue in a positive and effective way. For example, I cannot control what happens in Syria or Chad, but I could influence people’s views on those issues through social media.

Talha Asmal was the 17-year-old from Dewsbury who detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives while fighting for a militant group in Iraq. Farooq Yunus from the Zakaria mosque in Dewsbury said that we have failed these boys. The community said:

“ISIS is running a sophisticated social media campaign and the community is concerned their faith is being used by hate preachers and internet groomers to manipulate their religion.”

It is very difficult for the UK Government to influence remote areas of Chad, where Boko Haram, an essentially fascist terrorist organisation that is not concerned about the rules of international law, captures girls and makes them go and bomb other regions of Chad. However, it is possible for the Minister, with Home Office colleagues, to look at what material comes through the internet to people such as Talha Asmal in Dewsbury. It is possible to try to track that back to see where grooming takes place. We would do that if it were paedophile material or if people were trying to secure individuals for sexual purposes. We approach this in a controlled, libertarian way, but in a way that ensures that radicalisation does not take place using those methods.

We should also look at what we need to do in-region, and that is where the Foreign Office will play its role. The hon. Member for Glasgow North mentioned the Nigerian president and the new Nigerian Government. I confess that they are probably as concerned about what is happening in northern Nigeria and southern Chad as the UK Government are. The question for us is, what can we do to support them to achieve their objectives of cracking down on Boko Haram and on suicide bombings by children and others? How can we help to strengthen community leaders, give advice to Governments and potentially help them with some of the issues of social media and radicalisation? We should look into how we can strengthen responsible community leaders where we can. We are not responsible for Chad and northern Nigeria, but we can help to support the Governments accordingly. It will not be simple but it is important that the Government have a strategy to look at those areas.

I was particularly struck by the point made by the hon. Member for Glasgow North, which I also wanted to make: that this is clearly and utterly a war crime. Would the Minister give a signal? If we have evidence that a suicide bomb in a particular country—as in the Minister’s own personal case—killed a UK citizen, in respect of war crimes should we not look at those who are potentially radicalising but not actually committing the offence as well as the issue of international murder? Will the Minister clarify what steps he believes we should take with those who are grooming and training, or developing into, suicide bombers who we know, through intelligence or through co-operation with other Governments, are undertaking those activities? There is potential for us to look at how we can help to facilitate those prosecutions and that activity. There is a role for the UK Government, on an international stage, to support the development of tackling war crime issues in international courts.

Finally, I would appreciate the Minister’s support of the suggestion by the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath about unaccompanied children. If there are instances where the UK Government can help, a very productive way to assist vulnerable refugees would be for the Government to look at how we can help to take people out of conflict zones and into a place of safety. Children are made into potential suicide bombers for a range of reasons, but it is clear that their being separated from their families and falling into company encouraging such activities is certainly not a positive thing.

I welcome the debate. There will not be much difference between us on the fact that the issue is chilling, horrendous and needs to be stopped. I have mentioned some suggestions that we could look into. The Minister will, undoubtedly, make a contribution in other areas. The key thing is that, although we are not directly responsible for prevention in all spheres, there are things that we can do.

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath for giving us this opportunity to air the issues. I hope the Minister will be able at least to highlight some concrete potential areas of travel so that we can play our role in helping to end the conflicts that lead to this activity, to take action against the terrorist organisations that are destabilising many areas of Africa and the middle east and, particularly, to do what we can to stop the chilling phenomenon of child suicide bombers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Tobias Ellwood)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. I join other Members in congratulating the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Roger Mullin) on securing this important debate and on his measured contribution. He struck the right tone. I also thank him for his personal comments. My family and I are grateful for the manner in which he raised those issues.

I thank other hon. Members for their contributions, and I welcome the shadow Minister to his role. He and I have known each other for some time, although not for 23 years—I have not been here that long. He comes from a Home Office background, and he has huge experience of security matters. I am pleased to see him with a Foreign Office brief. He will have much to contribute.

The hon. Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) covered a number of issues concerning Nigeria and Yemen, which I will address. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is a regular contributor to such debates, is unfortunately not able to be in the Chamber, but he highlighted the brainwashing of children, which I will also address. I will focus primarily on the remarks, comments and thoughts of the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

The use of children as suicide bombers is a grave issue, and I am sure the House is united in its condemnation and deep sadness at the practice. As we have been reminded just this weekend in Turkey, any suicide bombing is a tragedy, and the use of children as weapons in that way is truly heartbreaking. Children involved in suicide attacks, as elsewhere in armed conflicts, are first and foremost victims, not perpetrators, as the shadow Minister said. Sadly, the use of children in conflict is nothing new. For example, thousands of children fought in the Napoleonic wars and in many conflicts since, including both world wars. In more recent times, children have fought in conflicts in places such as Cambodia, Colombia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Uganda, Chad, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and Somalia. There is a long list of countries in which such tragic events have taken place.

What is new is the horrifying way in which children are being used as instruments of violence. As has been said today, it is a chosen form of combat. Children are lured with false promises of paradise in the afterlife, or forcibly coerced by terrorist organisations, into carrying out suicide bombings against both state and civilian targets. The nature of conflict is changing, but the way in which terrorist groups in particular exploit the most vulnerable in society in pursuit of ever more barbaric attacks is both abhorrent and cowardly.

I will set out the need both to work towards resolution of specific conflicts and to seek to address the underlying issue of extremism, which can lead to such appalling acts of violence. I will also address the four measures mentioned by the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. The increasing spread of suicide attacks has principally been driven by two armed groups that have been mentioned today—ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and Boko Haram mainly in north-eastern in Nigeria—although we remain deeply concerned about the use of such tactics by other terrorist groups, including groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

ISIL has used co-ordinated suicide attacks as a key part of its military strategy, and we have seen reports of children in isolated areas being forced into military training after the militant group closed their schools, leaving an estimated total of more than 670,000 children without the opportunity to receive a proper education. ISIL bombards the internet daily with shocking images of children with weapons, and even of children being present at executions. As the hon. Gentleman said, the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights estimated in May that ISIL may have trained up to 1,000 children as suicide bombers since November 2014. A major step towards eradicating the abuse of children as suicide bombers is to attack the organisations that recruit them. We are utterly clear in our determination to defeat ISIL. The only way to relieve the suffering of children and adults affected by ISIL, and to counter the real and significant threat to the UK and our allies, is to defeat ISIL and establish peace and stability in the region.

Another worrying trend is the way in which ISIL, in particular, is luring young people to Iraq and Syria, as hon. Members have said. More than 700 UK-linked individuals have travelled to Iraq and Syria in recent years, and we know of at least six British nationals who have carried out suicide bombings, the youngest of whom was only 17. The problem is not confined to the so-called foreign fighters; we have also been shocked by the stories of young schoolchildren turning their backs on the safety of family and homes in the UK and of parents bringing their infant children with them into harm’s way in Syria.

In response, earlier this year, the Government introduced new legislation in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which provides the police with temporary powers to seize a passport at the border and places the Government’s deradicalisation programme, Channel, on a statutory footing. There will be new powers to add to existing terrorism prevention and investigation measures, and there will be targeted discretionary powers to control the return to the UK of British nationals suspected of terrorism offences. There will be enhanced aviation security powers, too, and insurers will be prohibited from reimbursing payments made in response to terrorist demands.

Internationally, the UK is at the forefront of global efforts to counter ISIL. In the UN, we supported the adoption of resolution 2178 calling on all countries to take appropriate measures to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria. The UK is playing a leading role in the global coalition of more than 60 nations committed to defeating ISIL. Together, we are working to defeat ISIL on all fronts: militarily; cutting off ISIL’s finances; reducing the influx of fighters; challenging ISIL’s ideology, and providing humanitarian assistance.

Boko Haram has regularly used child suicide bombers in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. It deliberately targets the weak and vulnerable, and it aims to sow seeds of unrest between communities. We estimate that more than 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.2 million displaced by the insurgency. The use of children as suicide bombers is a particularly heinous example of this terrorist organisation’s brutality, but we remain firm in our commitment to Nigeria and its regional partners in their fight against terrorism. We are providing a substantial package of UK military intelligence and development support to Nigeria, which includes increased training programmes and advice on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism. We have also provided £5 million to support a regional taskforce against Boko Haram itself. Like ISIL, Boko Haram must be defeated, and we are determined to ensure that it is.

More broadly, as we have seen in conflicts across the world, children continue to be used as soldiers. We are working with the UN, which leads the international response on that issue. The response includes pressing parties listed in the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict to enter into concrete action plans with the UN to verify and release any child soldiers associated with armed groups and forces. We also support the campaign of the Secretary-General’s special representative to end the recruitment and use of children by Government armed forces in conflict by 2016. The UK is providing £150,000 in funding over three years to support the UN office of the special representative, which has served to increase the special representative’s capacity to monitor emerging situations of concern, in line with Security Council resolutions 1612, 1882 and 1998 on children and armed conflict. The UK has also contributed funding to support a child protection adviser in the African Union to strengthen AU policies on preventing child soldier recruitment.

The UK recognises that education is important to preventing recruitment in the first place. We have therefore allocated more than £110 million for protection, psychological support and education under the “No Lost Generation” initiative since it was launched in 2013. Partners include the Department for International Development, UNICEF, the EU and Save the Children. The initiative aims to avert having a lost generation by ensuring that every Syrian child gets a good-quality education and access to child protection and much-needed psychological support. The partners have worked with host Governments in the region in an effort to mobilise predictable long-term finance in support of national educational sector plans with strategies for refugee children to access education through public schools and alternative education provision.

On the four specific proposals mentioned by the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in his speech—I was grateful to receive them beforehand, so I have no excuse for not replying to them—he first raised the importance of understanding the entire issue. The Government’s cross-departmental research, information and communications unit conducts research on a wide variety of issues related to counter-terrorism and counter-extremism. One such report, issued in February, analysed the use of children in ISIL propaganda, which has escalated in recent months, although we have yet to see an ISIL video that actually includes a child suicide bomber. The Government also continue to draw on the wealth of academic research being carried out in this country and others.

Secondly, the hon. Gentleman raised the importance of countering the indoctrination of children. Defeating terrorism is a job for us all, as the Opposition spokesman described. That means that individuals, families, communities and Governments must work together to expose the hateful beliefs of extremists, deny them space in which to operate and protect those who are vulnerable to radicalisation. One aspect of the Prevent strand of the UK counter-terrorism strategy is to protect vulnerable people, including children, from being drawn into terrorism. We are also working closely with international partners to address extremist material online and mobilise civil society to challenge extremism and find more effective ways to counter ISIL’s messaging.

Thirdly, the hon. Gentleman asked about creating a taskforce to address the issue. Although there are currently no plans to do so, I reassure him that the Government consult a wide range of stakeholders and experts as part of the policy-making process and will continue to do so as our extremism strategy is announced and rolled out in the coming months to ensure that it is as effective as possible.

Finally, the hon. Gentleman mentioned the plight of unaccompanied refugee children. Through the Syrian vulnerable persons relocation scheme, the UK is helping some of the most vulnerable refugees, including survivors of torture, women and children at risk and those in need of urgent medical treatment. As the Prime Minister announced on 7 September, we will expand the existing scheme to resettle up to 20,000 Syrians in need of protection during this Parliament. I stress that that is in addition to those whom we resettle under the gateway and mandate schemes and the thousands who receive protection in the UK under normal asylum procedures.

[Mr Hanson]

On that point, can the Minister shed any light on this? He has mentioned again the figure of 20,000 during the course of this Parliament. Does he have any indication of how many of that 20,000 he expects, let us say, within the next nine months, which will be a critical time given where we are in the refugee crisis?