Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to UK - court rules

Senior judges in a UK court have ruled that Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship.

She was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group (IS) - travelled to Syria in February 2015 and lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year, reports The Telegraph. 

Then home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

Begum, now 20, took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

In February, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone's British citizenship on national security grounds - ruled the decision was lawful as Begum was "a citizen of Bangladesh by descent" at the time of the decision.

The tribunal also found that she "cannot play any meaningful part in her appeal and that, to that extent, the appeal will not be fair and effective", but ruled that "it does not follow that her appeal succeeds".

Shamima Begum's challenge to the Home Office's decision to refuse to allow her to enter the UK to effectively pursue her appeal was also rejected.

In June, Shamima Begum's barrister Tom Hickman QC told the Court of Appeal that removing his client's British citizenship took away "the real possibility that she could return to the UK".

He said the decision had the result of "exposing her to ... the real risk of removal to Bangladesh or Iraq", where Begum faced "extra-judicial killing at the hands of the police" or "a wholly unfair and predetermined 'trial' and an immediate sentence of death".

At the hearing last month, Hickman argued that Begum's appeal against the deprivation of her citizenship should be allowed because it "cannot be pursued in a manner that satisfies even minimum requirements of fair procedure".

He also said  Javid had been informed that Begum could not have a fair or effective appeal when he took the decision to revoke her citizenship.

Hickman pointed out that Shamima Begum, who remains in the al-Roj camp in Syria, was only 15 when she left the UK, saying: "She had not even taken her GCSE exams."

Sir James Eadie QC, representing the Home Office, said: "The fact that the appellant could not fully engage with the statutory appeal procedure was a result of her decision to leave the UK, travel to Syria against Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice and align with ISIL.

"This led to her being held in conditions akin to detention in a foreign state at the hands of a third party, the Syrian Defence Force.

"It was not the result of any action by the secretary of state and the deprivation decision did not have any causative impact on the appellant in this respect."

Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join IS, shortly after Sharmeena Begum - who is no relation - travelled to Syria in December 2014.

Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, and Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Shamima claims she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all three of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign IS fighters.

She told The Times last February that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both since died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born.