Isis paying human smugglers for child refugees – report

Jihadist groups, including Isis, are paying human traffickers fees for child refugees in an attempt to attract new recruits, according to a report published in The Guardian.

Citing counter-extremism think-thank Quilliam, the report highlights the vulnerability of unaccompanied minors to radicalisation.

“Isis had offered up to $2,000 to recruit within camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Last year, Jordanian special forces reportedly found they described as an Isis sleeper cell inside a refugee camp near Irbid, north Jordan,” reads the report.

Moreover, it is also claimed that Isis has recruited refugees by supplying food previously withheld from camp residents.

The living conditions in refugee camps has been a major stumbling block in human rights’ groups acceptance of the migration agreement between Libya and the European Union, with many arguing that Libya is not a stable country where the rule of law cannot be upheld.

The report cites failures in Europe’s approach towards protecting child refugees travelling alone. traveling 

Speaking in Malta last month, the European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos acknowledged that more needed to be done for child migrants.

“Only 71 unaccompanied minors have so far been relocated from Greece and Italy and this is insufficient. We must improve and harmonise our procedures and we are determined to fill the gaps in the current system.”

According to Europol, 10,000 unaccompanied children had disappeared across Europe in 2016.