The UK government revoked Shamima Begum’s citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria.
Begum argued that the decision was illegal, in part because British officials failed to properly consider whether she was a victim of human trafficking. However, the argument was rejected by a lower court in February 2023.
London’s Court of Appeal rejected her appeal on Friday following an appeal in October, with Judge Sue Carr stating:
“It could be argued that the decision in Ms Begum’s case was harsh. It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her own misfortune. But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view. Our only task is to assess whether the deprivation decision was unlawful… We have concluded it was not and the appeal is dismissed.”
The Government welcomed the decision, and a representative of the Ministry of the Interior stated the following:
Our priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we will robustly defend any decision made in doing so.
Begum’s case has been the subject of heated debate in the UK between those who claim she voluntarily joined a terrorist group and those who argue that she was a child when she left or that she should stand trial for any alleged offences in the UK.
She left London in 2015 at the age of 15 and travelled with two school friends to Syria, where she married an IS militant and had three children. Begum has been held in Camp al-Roj since 2019 along with thousands of other foreign women and children.
Begum’s lawyer, Samantha Knights, told the Court of Appeal that the UK had a legal duty to consider whether she was a potential victim of trafficking or whether there had been any wrongdoing on the part of the state before stripping her of her British citizenship.
However, lawyers representing the British government argued that a decision to strip someone of their citizenship should be “focused on the risks posed by the individual, irrespective of how they may have come to be a risk.”
