At least four ISIS jihadi brides are queuing up behind Shamima Begum to return to UK by launching legal action challenging government decision to strip them of British citizenship
- Shamima Begum’s future to be determined by Supreme Court Judges tomorrow
- They will decide whether the 21-year-old ISIS bride can return to UK to appeal
- Begum, who left UK aged 15 in 2015 for Syria, is appealing for British citizenship
- Four other mothers in Syrian detention camps are seeking passage home to UK
At least four ISIS brides are following Shamima Begum’s lead in challenging the government’s decision to strip them of their British citizenship in a bid to return to the UK.
Begum’s future is set to be determined tomorrow as Judges at the Supreme Court will rule whether the 21-year-old will be allowed to return to the UK to appeal for her citizenship to be reinstated.
Begum left the UK for Syria in 2015 aged 15 as a school girl from Bethnal Green, east London, she married a Dutch ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk and had three children who have all died. Begum had her UK citizenship stripped in 2019.
Similarly four other women are believed to be seeking passage home to the UK from detention camps in Syria by taking legal action against the UK government, The Times reports.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum (pictured at a refugee camp in Syria last year) being shown a copy of the Home Office letter which stripped her of her British citizenship
Begum left the UK for Syria in 2015 aged 15 as a school girl from Bethnal Green, east London
The women, who are all mothers, have been granted anonymity to maintain their human rights and due to the risk of revenge attacks which could follow their attempts to get back to the UK.
They are expected to make the case for their British Passports to be reinstated claiming that they had been trafficked to Syria by their ISIS fighter husbands.
Begum’s case became a major political controversy in Britain, resulting in then-home secretary Sajid Javid revoking her British citizenship on national security grounds.
The Home Office argued that they had not made Begum ‘stateless’ as she could be eligible for a Bangladeshi passport due to her parentage.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) removed the ISIS bride’s citizenship after she resurfaced in a refugee camp in Syria in February 2019
Abdul Momen Bangladesh’s foreign minister previously said Begum could be hanged for supporting terrorism if she went to the country, adding that Bangladesh ‘had nothing to do with’ Ms Begum, despite Britain’s apparent belief that she has Bangladeshi citizenship.
She is challenging the government’s decision, and earlier this year, the Court of Appeal ruled that ‘the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal’.
Judges said that ‘fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed.’
ISIS Shamima Begum (pictured) fled London aged 15 to join Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria
Bangladeshi foreign minister Abdul Momen (pictured) said his government ‘had nothing to do with’ Ms Begum, despite Britain’s apparent belief that she has Bangladeshi citizenship
The court also found that ‘the national security concerns about her could be addressed and managed if she returns to the United Kingdom’.
The government is appealing the decision and argues that her return to the UK would bring an ‘increased risk of terrorism’ in Britain.
As a result, her potential return to the UK has been put on hold until a decision by the Supreme Court, which is due to hear the case tomorrow.
