Lawyer angry at Shamima Begum decision after ex-ISIS member refused passport

23 February 2023 , 10:49

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Lawyer angry at Shamima Begum decision after ex-ISIS member refused passport

Human rights lawyers have slammed the decision to deprive Shamima Begum of her British citizenship, describing the Government's attitude toward her as "offensive" and "appalling".

Begum, who left east London aged 15 to join the Islamic State (ISIS), had been challenging the decision taken by the then-home secretary, Sajid Javid, in 2019 to deny her a British passport.

Yesterday, 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.

Despite them saying there was “credible suspicion” she was a victim of trafficking, they concluded that the Home Secretary was not formally required to consider this when he removed her citizenship.

Judges described the case as a matter of 'great concern and difficulty' (BBC/Joshua Baker)

Judges described the case as a matter of "great concern and difficulty" and that she was "recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purposes of sexual exploitation."

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Human Rights lawyer Shoaib M Khan told Express.co.uk the ruling was "disappointing" as Begum is still stuck in a camp in northern Syria.

He said: "It is offensive and appalling that the British government’s response to a British child being trafficked to a war zone for the purposes of sexual exploitation was to revoke her British citizenship and leave her permanently stranded there."

Maya Foa, Director of the legal charity Reprieve and human rights lawyer pointed to the records of our western allies.

Shamima Begum in a BBC documentary (BBC)

She said in the Guardian that US state department officials in the Trump and Biden administrations have become “extraordinarily frustrated with Britain’s failure” to repatriate its nationals.

She continued: "There is a growing consensus that the UK’s refusal to repatriate is a failed policy, bad for national and global security.

"Rather than acknowledge this, or even engage in the debate, the government would rather focus on a caricature of Begum.

Shamima Begum, left east London aged 15 to join ISIS (BBC/Joshua Baker)

"Ministers ask us to reconcile two contradictory positions: that evidence presented by the intelligence agencies to the government shows she is a national security threat, but that there is insufficient evidence to try her on terrorism charges in a British court.

"This is bunk, a political posture in the absence of a policy."

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.

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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.

Rachel Hagan