Shamima Begum british woman loses UK citizenship appeal

• Shamima Begum’s appeal against the decision to revoke her British citizenship was denied.
• She remains in unlawful, arbitrary and indefinite detention without trial in Syrian camp.
• Javid’s decision to revoke Begum’s British citizenship was upheld.

Shamima Begum‘s appeal against the decision to revoke her British citizenship was denied; at the age of 15, she left the country to join ISIS.

After a five-day hearing in November, during which her attorneys claimed the UK Home Office had a duty to look into whether she was a victim of trafficking before stripping her of her citizenship, Judge Robert Jay issued the judgement on Wednesday.

The decision addresses whether Begum’s citizenship was improperly removed rather than whether she can go back to Britain.

Begum, now 23 years old, travelled to Syria in 2015 with two classmates to join the ISIS terrorist organisation.

She reemerged in February 2019 and gained notoriety throughout the world as a “ISIS bride” after begging with the UK authorities to let her go back to her native country so she could give birth to her kid.

On February 19, 2019, Begum’s British citizenship was revoked by the then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid, and the following month, Begum’s infant son passed away at a camp for refugees in northern Syria. Before to that child, who also passed away infancy in Syria, she claimed to have had two more children, according to British media.

As a “missed opportunity to put into reverse a grievous mistake and a continuing injustice,” Begum’s attorneys slammed Wednesday’s decision.

“The outcome is that there is now no protection for a British child trafficked out of the UK if the Home Secretary invokes national security,” Gareth Pierce and Daniel Furner, of Birnberg Pierce Solicitors, said in a statement seen by UK news agency.

“Begum remains in unlawful, arbitrary and indefinite detention without trial in a Syrian camp. Every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be urgently pursued,” it continued.

Rights group Amnesty International described the ruling as a “very disappointing decision.”

“The power to banish a citizen like this simply shouldn’t exist in the modern world, not least when we’re talking about a person who was seriously exploited as a child,” Steve Valdez-Symonds, the group’s UK refugee and migrant rights director, said in a statement.

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“Along with thousands of others, including large numbers of women and children, this young British woman is now trapped in a dangerous refugee camp in a war-torn country and left largely at the mercy of gangs and armed groups.”

“The home secretary shouldn’t be in the business of exiling British citizens by stripping them of their citizenship,” Valdez-Symonds said.

Javid, the home secretary who removed Begum’s British citizenship, welcomed Wednesday’s ruling, tweeted that it “upheld my decision to remove an individual’s citizenship on national security grounds.”

“This is a complex case but home secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it.” Javid added.

Begum has appealed to the public on numerous occasions in her fight against the government’s decision, most notably in the BBC documentary The Shamima Begum Story and a 10-part BBC podcast series.

Begum has appealed to the public on numerous occasions in her fight against the government’s decision, most notably in the BBC documentary The Shamima Begum Story and a 10-part BBC podcast series.

She appealed the UK government’s decision to revoke her citizenship, but in June 2019, the government rejected her request to enter the country to continue her case.

Begum should be given permission to enter the country, the UK Court of Appeal said in 2020, since it would not otherwise be “a fair and effective hearing.”

The Supreme Court overturned that judgement the following year, claiming that the Court of Appeal erred in four different ways when it decided that Begum should be permitted to return to the UK to pursue her appeal.

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