Court of Appeal turns down Shamima Begum appeal to challenge citizenship ruling.
August 2024
Shamima Begum's appeal to overturn the government's decision to remove her British citizenship was turned down by the Court of Appeal on 7 August. They said her appeal '[did] not raise an arguable point of law'. She fled the country in 2015 with two others - now believed to be dead - in order to join ISIS then in the process of trying to establish an Islamic caliphate. ISIS committed a number of horrific crimes, including beheadings, and large numbers of people died during their violent reign.
Begum was 15 when she fled and once there, she became a bride, had three children all of whom died young. She is now 24 and is living in al-Roij camp in Syria. A great deal of rage settled on her and various commentators have tried to understand this - why her? Partly it seems to be a mixture of misogyny and the fact she did not conform to the standard narrative of someone who had done what she did and now sought forgiveness. She became a kind of figurehead for the rage people felt about the terrible actions of ISIS. It also seems to have been forgotten that she was a child of 15 when she left.
Removing someone's citizenship is a severe retribution however and seems to have been done by the then home secretary Said Javid in response to tabloid rage. The argument that she was a 'threat to national security' is absurd and in what way was never explained. It has never been claimed that she committed any atrocity. How she would be a threat if she returned to the UK is also not explained. The government tried to argue that she could become a Bangladeshi citizen, an argument Lord Sumption described as a 'legal fiction'.
Amnesty has issued a press release on this topic.
"It's deeply concerning that the Supreme Court has concluded there's no point of law to be considered on such a serious matter as stripping a British person of her citizenship - particularly when that was done on the back of her being exploited as a 15-year-old child.
"Stripping Shamima Begum's nationality was profoundly wrong - she is and has always been British.
"Begum is now exiled in dangerous and inhuman conditions, along with thousands of other people, including women and children, in north-east Syria".
"The UK should follow others by taking responsibility for nationals stranded in Syria - including by assisting in their safe return to the UK, whether or not that means facing possible criminal investigation or prosecution on their return."
It is interesting to note that in an article in the Daily Mail on line, they report that the residents of Bethnal Green (where Shamima Begum used to live) would 'welcome her back'.
There is now likely to be an appeal to the European Court of Human rights.
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