It has been announced that Shamima Begum has lost her challenge to regain British citizenship, with her appeal being dismissed in court.
The 23-year-old will now be barred from returning to the UK for good, after leaving the country as a 15-year-old girl to join the Islamic State group in 2015.
She will now remain in a camp in northern Syria, despite there being a “credible” case that she was trafficked out there.
She had married a fighter from the Islamist group and had three children, all of whom sadly died, before losing having her British citizenship stripped in 2019.
Mr Justice Jay told the court, “The Commission concluded that there was a credible suspicion that Ms Begum had been trafficked to Syria.
“The motive for bringing her to Syria was sexual exploitation to which, as a child, she could not give a valid consent.
“The Commission also concluded that there were arguable breaches of duty on the part of various State bodies in permitting Ms Begum to leave the country as she did and eventually cross the border from Turkey into Syria.”
Despite these suspicions, he added, “If asked to evaluate all the circumstances of Ms Begum’s case, reasonable people with knowledge of all the relevant evidence will differ, in particular in relation to the issue of the extent to which her travel to Syria was voluntary and the weight to be given to that factor in the context of all others.
“Likewise, reasonable people will differ as to the threat she posed in February 2019 to the national security of the United Kingdom, and as to how that threat should be balanced against all countervailing considerations.
“However, under our constitutional settlement these sensitive issues are for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the Commission.”
Shamima Begum remains able to appear the decision.
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