Canadian spy smuggled British school girls to Syria as UK covered up: Book

A British teenager of Bangladeshi descent who traveled to Syria in 2015 with two friends to join the Daesh terrorist group was smuggled into the war-ravaged country by a Canadian spy, a new explosive book reveals.

Authorities in Shamima Begum’s home country conspired with Canada to cover up her disappearance, according to a newly released book, ‘The Secret History of the Five Eyes’ by Richard Kerbaj, a former security correspondent of The Sunday Times, based on interviews with world leaders and top spies.

Then-15-year-old Begum and her two friends – Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – left their homes in east London’s Bethnal Green area in 2015 to be the Daesh brides.

Begum subsequently married a Dutch foreign fighter in Syria and gave birth to three children.

In February 2019, Begum expressed her desire to return home, but the British government revoked her citizenship, leading to a legal battle for the restoration of her citizenship.

Begum, now 23-year-old, remains detained in a camp in northern Syria. 

The explosive book makes startling disclosures about the case, saying the Scotland Yard [London police] knew the teenage girls were trafficked into Syria by a smuggler who was working as a double agent for Daesh and the Canadian intelligence.

"Canada knew about the teenagers' fate but kept silent while the Metropolitan Police ran a frantic, international search for the trio," British newspaper The Times cited the book in a report on Tuesday.

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"Canada privately admitted its involvement only when it feared being exposed, and then successfully asked the British to cover up its role,” it added.

Canadian authorities continued to remain silent, but after Türkiye arrested the smuggler, Canadian national Mohammed Al Rasheed, it privately conveyed it to the UK, the book and media reports said.

According to reports, before becoming Canada's spy, Rasheed had traveled to Jordan where he met officials at the Canadian embassy and sought asylum in the country.

However, the book reveals that the human trafficker was instead recruited and told to collect intelligence on the Daesh terrorist group.

In a report on Tuesday, BBC said it has seen files that show Rasheed claimed to have shared Begum's passport details with Canada and smuggled her and other British nationals to fight for Daesh.

Rasheed, it added, provided information to a Canadian spy agency while smuggling people for Daesh.

The British broadcaster said it had received a dossier “that contains information gathered by law enforcement and intelligence, as well as material recovered from his hard drives, which provide extraordinary detail about how he operated."

"He told authorities that he had gathered information on the people he helped into Syria because he was passing it to the Canadian embassy in Jordan," the report hastened to add.

Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer representing the Begum family, has demanded an inquiry into what the police and intelligence services knew but remained tight-lipped about.

“Britain has lauded its efforts to stop ISIS and the grooming of our children by spending millions of pounds on the Prevent programme and online monitoring,” he said.

“However, at the very same time, we have been cooperating with a Western ally, trading sensitive intelligence with them whilst they have effectively been nabbing British children and trafficking them across the Syrian border for delivery to ISIS, all in the name of intelligence gathering.”

“The calculation here is that the lives of British children, and the risk of their death, is part of the algorithm of acceptable risk our Western allies have taken,” he added, adding that the revelations were of “crucial importance”, given that Begum had argued she was trafficked into Syria.

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