• Shamima Begum fled the UK for Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State (IS) group.
• Her British citizenship was revoked in 2019 due to national security concerns.
• A court has heard that she was a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

A court has heard that Shamima Begum was a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation when she fled the UK for Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State organization.

Ms. Begum visited Syria in 2015. In 2019, her citizenship was revoked due to national security concerns.

During a five-day immigration court, a fresh bid to reverse the termination of her UK citizenship will be considered.

She continues to be a threat to national security, according to the Home Office.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which can hear evidence pertaining to national security in secret if necessary, is hearing the case.

Ms. Begum’s attorneys argued in court that Sajid Javid’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship was illegal because it disregarded the possibility that she had been trafficked as a young child. Ms. Begum is now 23 years old.

Nearly eight years after escaping her home in London with two other east London schoolgirls—Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase—she is still in a camp guarded by armed guards in northern Syria.

Ms. Begum was transported into Syria at the time by a Canadian intelligence agent. According to the Canadian government, it will “follow up” on the accusations.

After arriving in Syria, she wed a Dutch IS recruit and spent more than three years there. She was discovered by The Times newspaper in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019 while nine months pregnant. Later, her infant passed away from pneumonia, and Ms. Begum revealed that she had already lost two other children.

In a September 2021 interview with media, Ms. Begum volunteered to assist the UK in battling terrorism and stated that she would regret joining the Islamic State group (also known as IS, ISIS, and ISIL) for the rest of her life.

Previously, Ms. Begum compared the 2017 Manchester Arena explosion, in which 22 people, including young children, were killed, to military operations on IS strongholds and referred to the terror attack as “retaliation.”

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