Shamima Begum has lost her battle for British citizenship — eight years after she left the UK as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join Islamic State (ISIS).
Begum, who left east London aged 15 to join the Islamic State, had been challenging the decision taken by the then-home secretary, Sajid Javid, in 2019 to strip her of her British citizenship.
Today, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) decided this decision was lawful and ruled that the suspicion she had been trafficked to Syria was insufficient for her to succeed in the appeal.
The judge, Mr Justice Jay, found that there was a “credible suspicion” she was a victim of trafficking, however, Mr Jay concluded that the Home Secretary was not formally required to consider this when he removed her citizenship.
Mr Jay also said the Secretary of State’s conclusion that she travelled voluntarily to Syria was "as stark as it is unsympathetic."
Begum's lawyer has said it’s far from over and will be challenging the judgement. Their statement read: "Regrettably, this is a lost opportunity to put into reverse a profound mistake and a continuing injustice."
Begum married the notoriously hardline IS member Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27, aged just 15 and had three children with him who all later died.
She was found by a British journalist in a refugee camp in 2019, after IS lost the ground war in Syria, thus making the government aware she was still alive.
Begum's British citizenship was then stripped and she was banned from entering Britain following being deemed a threat to the nation — she has been fighting to return to the UK ever since.
Bahrain and Nicaragua (very recently) are the only countries other than the UK that strip citizenship in bulk. Since 2000, the UK has deprived at least 212 people of citizenship: more than ten times as many as France or Australia.
In 2020, the Court of Appeal gave her permission to return to the UK to appeal her revoked citizenship. Then in 2021, the Supreme Court overturned this, finding national security fears outweighed right to an effective hearing.
Giving the decision of the tribunal, Mr Justice Jay said today that "reasonable people will differ" over the circumstances of Begum's case and that those advising the Secretary of State see this as a black and white issue, when many would say "that there are shades of grey.
Begum and her two friends were not stopped by the police, school and local authority and the commission said that that there were state failures and possible violations of the [state’s] corollary protective duty, between December 2014 and February 2015, which could be investigated.
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, a British lawyer, Conservative politician, and member of the House of Lords said: "In the last decade, the use of citizenship-stripping has been radically expanded by the Government. These extreme powers have been used almost exclusively against Muslims, mainly of South Asian, Middle-Eastern and African heritage, creating a two-tier citizenship system completely at odds with British values of fairness and equality before the law."
In a recent BBC documentary, Begum said whatever happens she does not expect to be let back and regardless of the decision she believes she will remain in Syria.
There are several British women who have British citizenship imprisoned in Camps in northeast Syria and they can’t come home because the Government refuses to repatriate them.
Until the Kurdish administration receives a request from the UK Government, it will not let them leave.
Begum has described the conditions at the camp as “worse than prison” because there is no time limit to the length of her detention, until the government decides to repatriate her she will remain.
So far the eleven Britons, but only one adult, have been repatriated and Rights & Security International (RSI) say the UK has "dragged its heels" on the issue.
In comparison to 100 by Germany, close to 90 by France and over 200 by Tajikstan - according to RSI.
Human Rights Organisation Reprieve, which represents around 30 of the detained women, published an investigation which found that more than 60 per cent of British women in detention in northeast Syria are victims of trafficking by ISIS.
Latest allegations say that Begum and her two friends, who were both killed, were taken into Syria by a smuggler who was leaking information to the Canadian security services.
If the state does believe certain individuals have committed crimes and were not trafficked, aid organisations say there should be brought back to the UK to stand a free and fair trial.
The decision to revoke Begum’s citizenship has come under fire from human rights campaigners and legal experts who say that the rendering her stateless compromises her right to a fair appeal.
