Samina Begum, now 23, left the UK for Syria, married an ISIS fighter, stayed in a camp and lost three children
THE Samina Begumwhich left the United Kingdom to join the ISIS At the age 15 years oldlost her appeal against the decision to revoke her British citizenship.
Judge Robert J made the ruling on Wednesday after a five-day hearing in November in which her lawyers argued that the UK Home Office had a duty to investigate if she was a victim of trafficking before she was stripped of her citizenship.
The ruling does not determine whether Begum can return to Britain, but whether she removal of her citizenship was legal.
Begum is now 23 years old and lives in one camp in northern Syriaflew to the country in 2015 with two friends from school to join the ISIS terrorist group. In February 2019, it resurfaced and made international headlines as “bride of ISIS”after pleading with the UK government to be allowed to return for her birth of her son.
The then UK Home Secretary Shahid Javid, stripped of her British citizenship on 19 February 2019while her newborn son died in a Syrian refugee camp next month. Begum told British media that she had two other children before this baby, who also died in Syria in infancy.
“Begum remains in illegal, arbitrary and indefinite detention without trial in a Syrian camp. Every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be pursued as a matter of urgency“, her lawyer said.
Rights group Amnesty International described Begum’s decision as “absolutely disappointing”.
Javid, the Home Secretary who stripped Begum of her British citizenship, welcomed Wednesday’s decisiontweeting: “The court upheld my decision to strip a person of their citizenship for national security reasons».
I welcome today’s court ruling, which has again upheld my decision to remove an individual’s citizenship on national security grounds.
This is a complex case but Home Secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it.
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) February 22, 2023
“This is a complicated case, but Home Secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone from entering our country who is deemed to be a threat to it». added Javid.
Begum has made several public appeals as she campaigned against the government’s decision, most recently appearing in the BBC documentary The Shamima Begum Story and a BBC podcast series.
Travel and life in Syria
THE Begum was 15 years old when she flew out of Gatwick Airport with two of her classmates and traveled to Syria.
The teenagers, all from Bethnal Green Academy in east London, were to to meet with another classmatewho had made the same trip a few months earlier.
While in Syria, Begum married an ISIS fighter and lived several years in Raqqa. He then appeared in al-Hawl, a Syrian refugee camp with 39,000 people, in 2019.
Speaking from the camp during her pregnancy, Begum told British newspaper The Times that she wanted to go home to give birth to her child, while revealing that she already had two other children who died in infancy from malnutrition and disease.
She gave birth to her son, Jarrah, in al-Hawl in February of that year. The baby’s health deteriorated rapidly and passed away after being transferred from the camp to the main hospital in the city of al-Hasakah.
Watch video from al-Hawl camp:
Source :Skai
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