Shamima Begum and other British women who joined Islamic State should be brought home, Government terror watchdog says
- The reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall QC will argue that British women should be able to return to the UK from Syria in King’s College London
- Comes after the UK’s allies are putting pressure on Britain to repatriate citizens
- High-profile case Shamima Begum lost her appeal against her citizenship being revoked last week after she joined IS in 2015 at just aged 15 with two friends
British women including Shamima Begum who opted to join Islamic State should be brought home, according to the government’s terrorism watchdog.
Reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC will argue that British woman should be able to return to the UK from Syria after UK’s allies, including the US, repatriated their citizens, according to The Times.
The most high-profile case of a British woman joining IS is that of Shamima Begum, who was just 15 when she signed up with two friends from Bethnal Green in east London in 2015. She married a 23-year-old ISIS fighter ten days after arriving in Syria, where she remains in a camp in the north of the country.
Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds by the former home secretary Sajid Javid shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
Ms Begum, now 23, brought a challenge against the Home Office at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), where her lawyers argued she should be allowed to return to Britain on the basis she was ‘a victim of child sex trafficking’.
The most high-profile case of a British woman joining IS is that of Shamima Begum, who was just 15 when she signed up with two friends from Bethnal Green in east London in 2015
The reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC, will argue that British woman should be able to return to the UK from Syria after UK’s allies, including the US, argued it should be the case
However, the Home Office defended the decision by saying the security services ‘continue to assess’ that she poses a risk to the UK.
Last week, she lost a fresh legal challenge against the removal of her citizenship, with judges ruling that while there was a ‘credible suspicion’ that Ms Begum was trafficked to Syria for ‘sexual exploitation’ this was not enough for her appeal to succeed.
Her lawyers have vowed to appeal the ruling.
Ms Begum is one of an estimated 60 British women and children currently in Syria. Many have not had the citizenship revoked but are without travel documents and have no means of leaving Syria without the help of the British government.
The Government is now under pressure to bring them back to the UK. It comes after the US led the charge in bringing dozens of its citizens home.
In a speech in King’s College London, Mr Hall is expected to say the British Government’s policy of removing citizenship and limiting assistance it will give to British citizens in Syria, is ‘at a crossroads’.
He will say the risk ISIS pose has changed and that the UK is now ‘under the spotlight’ as other countries begin to repatriate their citizens.
He is also expected to say Britons in Syrian camps are now in limbo and a decision is needed.
‘This decision ‘could come sooner than expected through US and allied pressure, Turkish military activity, court rulings, or natural disasters,’ he will say.
Ms Begum’s British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds by the former home secretary Sajid Javid shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019
‘Compared to men, women are less likely to have travelled for the purpose of fighting, are less likely to have played battlefield roles, may well have had less autonomy in being able to leave and now make up the majority of those UK-linked individuals detained,’ he will say.
‘Women with children may also fear child protection measures being taken against them… mitigating against further terrorist engagement.
‘For UK-linked children, the less time spent being incubated as cubs of the caliphate the better.’
Shamima Begum: From straight-A London schoolgirl to stateless jihadi bride
Ms Begum crossed into Syria with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed, according to reports
Shamima Begum was a London schoolgirl until Scotland Yard raised concerns she and two of her fellow pupils had travelled to Syria in February 2015.
The now 23-year-old was just 15 when she travelled to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) with her close friends at Bethnal Green Academy – Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15.
Despite her family’s warnings that Syria was a ‘dangerous place’, the then teenager, described as a ‘straight A student’, crossed the border just days later with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed, according to reports.
In a BBC podcast series, she said she was told to ‘pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband’.
Just ten days after arriving in the city of Raqqa, Ms Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, was married to a Dutchman named Yago Riedijk, who had converted to Islam.
They had three children together, who all later died from malnourishment or disease. They were a one-year-old girl, a three-month-old boy and newborn son.
Ms Begum pictured with a Union Flag cushion in 2020. It was the first time she was seen without her usual black burka
Ms Begum left Raqqa with her husband in January 2017, but they were eventually split up, as she claimed he was arrested for spying and tortured.
She was eventually found nine months pregnant in a refugee camp in Al-Hawl in February 2019 by a Times journalist.
Ms Begum told the reporter it ‘didn’t faze me at all’ when she saw her first ‘severed head’, but would ‘do anything required just to be able to come home’.
But the runaway schoolgirl said she did not regret travelling to IS-controlled Syria, saying she had a ‘good time’.
The former Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said Ms Begum could expect to be ‘spoken to’ if she returned to the UK.
In the same month, she was stripped of her British citizenship after announcing her desire to return to the UK with her then unborn third child.
The move was deemed only permissible under international law if it did not leave her stateless.
Since then, the former IS bride has been embroiled in a battle with the British legal system – she lost her latest legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship on Wednesday.
Ms Begum described the initial move to revoke her citizenship as ‘unjust on me and my son’.
Sajid Javid said although he would never leave an individual stateless, his priority was the ‘safety and security’ of the UK.
Kadiza Sultana – who was killed in an airstrike – and Amira Abase, whose whereabouts are unknown
The then home secretary was criticised by Labour after Ms Begum’s son later died – with Diane Abbott describing the situation as ‘callous and inhumane’.
Ms Begum lost her first appeal to return to the UK but successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal.
But the Government submitted a fresh appeal, meaning her return was put on hold pending a Supreme Court battle.
She was dealt a fresh blow when the Supreme Court ruled she could not come back to the UK – leading to her begging the British public for forgiveness.
When she appeared on TV screens in September 2021, she had drastically changed her appearance – wearing a Nike baseball cap, a grey vest, Casio watch and with her fingernails painted pink.
Ms Begum said there was ‘no evidence’ she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts and was prepared to prove her innocence in court.
She denied her Western physical appearance on Good Morning Britain – in stark contrast to the traditional Islamic dress she previously adorned – was a publicity stunt.
In the BBC podcast series released last month, she said she understood public anger towards her, but insisted she is not a ‘bad person’.
She told the podcast she accepted she is viewed ‘as a danger, as a risk’, but blamed her portrayal in the media.
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