Christina Lamb

This deeply reported story of ‘a Guantanamo of women and children in the desert’ – 60,000 women and children stranded in Syrian camps - accomplishes a fundamental task of journalism: to remind us of uncomfortable truths.

Most people when they think of ISIS women think of Shamima Begum. But there are around 60 other British women and children stuck in the camps who have been stripped of citizenship whether or not they knowingly joined the terror group. This story featured the first in-depth interviews with them. Vividly depicting the horrors of their predicament -it begins with a woman beheaded as a warning to others- the piece also provides a balanced examination of the issues surrounding their status. It was the week’s most commented Sunday Times story and prompted discussion in other national media. Two months later the UK government quietly changed its policy and repatriated the first adult woman