A GRANDMOTHER accused the British government today of having “abandoned” her three grandchildren to live in a refugee camp in Syria.

The children were taken from their home in London in 2015 by their mother Nicole Jack and her first husband Hussein Ali to join Isis. 

London-based nurse Charleen Jack-Henry said her family has been stranded in a Kurdish-run refugee camp since last year and has called on the government to help them return. Ms Jack-Henry said she fears for the safety of the children, who are all under 12.

She told BBC’s Today programme: “I want them out of that place, but it seems so hopeless. It seems like they have just been abandoned by the British government.

“That’s no place for kids to grow up. My fear is that if you leave kids in a place where violence is normalised, then they could not have a normal life anywhere else.”

Her eldest grandchild Isaaq, nine, was killed in a bombing in 2017. Mr Ali died in similar circumstances.

Ms Jack-Henry does not believe that her daughter, who has British and Trinidadian citizenship, went abroad willingly with her first husband.

Ms Jack said that she was willing to be “locked up” in Britain if it meant a second chance for her British-born daughters.

Membership of Isis carries a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars.

Ms Jack-Henry’s plea comes as Shamima Begum, one of three east London schoolgirls who fled to Syria to join Isis in 2015, fights a legal battle after being stripped of her British citizenship.