UK court to decide on Shamima Begum’s citzenship appeal

U.K. court rules on Shamima Begum’s appeal against the removal of her U.K. citizenship amid debates over legal and humanitarian considerations

Shamima Begum, the British woman who left the country at 15 to join Daesh, is set to learn the verdict on her appeal against the removal of her U.K. citizenship.

Three court of appeal judges, including Chief Justice Sue Carr, will announce their decision on Friday regarding the legality of the home secretary’s revocation of her citizenship, based on it being “conducive to the public good,” and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) affirmation of this decision.

During the appeal hearing in October, Begum’s legal team argued that then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid had not adequately considered whether she had been groomed and trafficked, thereby potentially breaching anti-slavery protections under British law.

Last February, SIAC found credible suspicion that Begum “was recruited, transferred, and harbored for the purpose of sexual exploitation” but noted the broad discretion of the home secretary in such decisions.

Departing her east London home in 2015 with two school friends, Begum traveled to Syria, where she married Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27. After being discovered in a refugee camp in 2019, she was stripped of her citizenship and stopped from returning to Britain.

Begum has previously described conditions at al-Roj, where she is detained, as “worse than prison” due to the indefinite nature of her confinement. Tragically, three of her children have died while in Syria, the last shortly after Javid’s notification to her family about the citizenship revocation.

Even if Begum’s appeal succeeds, it does not guarantee her return to the U.K.

Source: Newsroom

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