The supreme court’s refusal on Wednesday to hear Shamima Begum’s appeal against the removal of her UK citizenship will be a crushing disappointment, but it is unlikely to have come as a shock.
British courts have acknowledged that she is in all likelihood a child trafficking victim, groomed by Islamic State for sexual exploitation, and that stripping her of her British citizenship leaves her effectively stateless; but that the law as it stands allows a home secretary to remove all the rights that come with a UK passport from someone such as Begum, possibly without notice, and certainly without due process. Yesterday, three justices at Britain’s highest court agreed.
