Shamima Begum has lost her final appeal against the removal of her British citizenship at the UK’s Supreme Court. Judges at the highest court in the country have ruled that Ms Begum cannot challenge the decision to revoke her citizenship on national security grounds. The recent decision comes after a number of legal battles by the 24-year-old, who left London for Syria in 2015 and later joined the Islamic State group.
Ms Begum’s lawyers have informed the BBC that they intend to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The court will decide whether the process to deprive her of British citizenship should have considered whether she was a potential victim of trafficking. The Supreme Court justices affirmed an earlier ruling that found those concerns had no material bearing on the decision under UK law.
Ms Begum married an Islamic State fighter soon after arriving in Syria and bore three children, all of whom died. She was stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds in 2019 by the then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid, leaving her stateless. She remains in a camp controlled by armed guards in northern Syria.
Reacting to the ruling, Maya Foa, director of human rights charity Reprieve, said: “Exiling British nationals like Ms Begum is about politics, not the law. The prior government’s failed do-nothing approach must be abandoned. Our politicians should take responsibility and repatriate the small number of British families in this position so their cases can be dealt with here in Britain.”
According to the UN, Ms Begum is held in Camp Roj in north-east Syria, which holds nearly 3,000 individuals, 65% of whom are children. Shamima Begum’s story is available as a feature length documentary or a podcast on BBC platforms to UK residents
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