Gavin Williamson, the UK's Defence Secretary, has said that he opposes the idea of British military flying fighters with UK citizenship back to the country, according to the Daily Mail.
"Do I want to see our Royal Air Force flying these people back to our country? Never," said Williamson, who oversaw the large-scale British-Omani military exercise in the desert.
He announced on Monday that Britain would open a new military base in Oman next year, praising it as evidence that Britain was "stepping out" to the world. However, it appears, in some ways that the British military has adopted a more thoughtful approach to national boundaries.
"I don't want to see the RAF flying people who tried to do harm and hurt to British people," he remarked, speaking of the possibility of sending British extremists that fought in Syria in Iraq back to Albion.
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"I am not going to be in a position where I am using British Armed Forces to bring back jihadists who have done harm to our country, and who think it is acceptable to throw people — because of their background because of their faith, sexuality — off buildings."
A number of UK citizens are among those detained by Syrian Kurdish fighters who ousted terrorists from the territories they had previously held. The Kurds have indicated that they did not have the resources to hold them in captivity and pushed foreign governments for their repatriation.
The British government has recently refused to take back an NHS doctor, who is being held in captivity by the SDF, a Syrian Kurdish militia, on suspicion of ties to Daesh, a terror group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
The UK government has been recently pushed to take in the "celebrity" detainees, Alexanda Amon Kotey and Al Shafee Al Sheikh, who are suspected members of the notorious Daesh cell dubbed "The Beatles." They were arrested in Syria in January and have remained detained there ever since; the British government stripped them of their citizenship. However, they may face trial in the US after British prosecutors found "insufficient evidence" for them to stand trial in the UK.
