British court upholds decision to strip woman of citizenship after joining ISIS

• Shamima Begum, who traveled to Syria as a teenager to join Islamic State, has lost her appeal against the British government’s decision to strip her of British citizenship.
• Begum, now 24, fled London at the age of 15 to marry a Syrian IS fighter and had three children, all of whom died.
• She was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 and has been living in a Syrian refugee camp ever since.

A woman who traveled to Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State group lost her appeal against the British government’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship, with judges ruling on Friday. It said it was not their role to decide whether the deprivation was “harsh”. I’ll do that.

Shamima Begum, now 24, was 15 when she and two other girls fled London in February 2015 to marry IS fighters in Syria. At the time, the group’s online recruitment program was luring many impressionable young people into its self-proclaimed caliphate. Begum married a Dutch man fighting for IS, and she had three children, all of whom died.

Shortly after she surfaced in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019, authorities stripped her of her British citizenship, where she has been ever since. Last year, Begum lost her appeal against a decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Board, which hears challenges to decisions to strip her of British citizenship on national security grounds.

British woman who traveled to Syria to join IS loses appeal in fight to regain British citizenship

Her lawyers filed a further application to overturn the decision in the Court of Appeal, but the Home Office opposed the challenge.

All three judges dismissed her case.

Delivering the judgment, Chief Justice Sue Kerr said it was not the court’s job to decide whether the decision to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship was “harsh” or whether she was “the cause of her own misfortune”. said.

She said the court’s only task was to assess whether the decision to strip Begum of her citizenship was illegal.

“As this was not the case, Ms. Begum’s appeal is dismissed,” the judge added.

Mr Kerr said any debate over the outcome of the unanimous judgment, which could include an appeal to the UK Supreme Court, would be adjourned for seven days.

Ms Begum’s lawyer indicated that further challenges were being prepared.

“I think the only thing we can say for sure is that we will keep fighting,” Daniel Farner said outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

“I am sorry to Shamima and her family that after five years of fighting they still have not received justice in a British court, and I want to assure Shamima and the government that we will never stop fighting. I want to say that she will receive justice and will return home safely.”

Begum’s lawyers argued that a decision by then British Home Secretary Sajid Javid rendered her stateless and that she should have been treated as a victim of child trafficking rather than a security risk.

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The British government claimed she could obtain a Bangladeshi passport based on family ties. However, Ms Begum’s family claimed that she was from the UK and that she had never held a Bangladeshi passport.

Mr Javid said he welcomed the judgment which “upheld” his decision.

“This is a complex case, but the Home Secretary should have the power to prevent the entry of anyone deemed to pose a threat to our country,” he said.

After the verdict, many campaigners voiced their disappointment.

Steve Valdes-Symonds, refugee and migrant director at Amnesty International UK, said: “The power to expel citizens like this should never exist in the modern world, especially if they have been severely exploited as children. Especially when you’re talking about someone who has been subjected to it.” Rights Director.