Shamima Begum will not be able to come back to the UK after losing a legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship. The court decision was made eight years after she left east London as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join Islamic State (ISIS).
After she was found - nine months pregnant - in February 2019 at a Syrian refugee camp, her British citizenship was revoked. Now 23-years-old, Ms Begum brought a challenge against the Home Office over this decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds.
Today (Feb 22), following a five-day hearing in November, the tribunal dismissed her challenge. Ms Begum’s barristers, Samantha Knights KC and Dan Squires KC, said at the time of the hearing that she was “recruited, transported, transferred, harboured and received in Syria for the purposes of ‘sexual exploitation’ and ‘marriage’ to an adult male”.
