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Europe’s top court demands UK response over matter Decision to strip Shamima Begum of her citizenship At 15, she joined the so-called Islamic State.
European Court of Human Rights asks Home Secretary if UK meets responsibilities to victims of human trafficking Her citizenship was revoked in 2019.
Ms Begum is from Bethnal Green, east London. Territory captured by Islamic State a decade ago.
Ten days after arriving in Syria, she “married” Islamic State militant Yago Riedijk, a Dutch-born convert to Islam and a convicted terrorist.
In February 2019, she was stripped of her British citizenship because she posed a threat to national security.
In 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that she should be allowed to return to the UK to fairly challenge the decision. But a year later, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against allowing Ms. Begum to return. She remains in the Syrian camp.
A document released by the European Court of Justice earlier this month showed Ms Begum was challenging the decision under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits slavery and forced labour.
One of the four questions Judge Strasbourg asked the Home Office asked: “Under Article 4 of the Convention, does the Secretary of State have a positive obligation to consider whether the applicant has been a victim of trafficking and whether that fact creates any duties or obligations for her before deciding to strip her of her citizenship?”
Law firm Bernberg Pierce, representing Ms Begum, said the court’s communication “provides an unprecedented opportunity for the UK and Ms Begum” to “address the significant considerations raised in her case that have hitherto been ignored, avoided or breached by successive UK governments”.
Lawyer Gareth Peirce said: “There is no doubt that a 15-year-old British child was lured, encouraged and deceived in 2014/2015 to leave his home for the purpose of sexual exploitation and travel to an area controlled by ISIS, with the known purpose of being handed over as a child to an ISIS fighter to reproduce for ISIS.”
“It is also impossible not to acknowledge that when a close friend disappeared into Syria in the same way and by the same route, children who had known for weeks that he was at high risk were not protected.
“It has long been acknowledged that the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid made the very public and hasty decision to strip Ms Begum of her citizenship in 2019 without regard to the issues of grooming and trafficking of school children in London and the consequent responsibilities of the state.”
She also noted the Labor government’s decision to make protecting victims of sexual abduction and human trafficking a national priority.
But a Home Office spokesman said any decisions taken to protect national security would be vigorously defended.
“The government will always protect the UK and its citizens,” the spokesman said. “That is why Shamima Begum, who poses a national security threat, has had her British citizenship revoked and cannot return to the UK. We will vigorously defend any decision taken to protect our national security.”
The Conservatives said Ms Begum should not be allowed to return to the UK “under any circumstances”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Begum has chosen to support Daesh’s violent Islamist extremists who murder opponents, rape thousands of women and girls and throw people from buildings for being gay.
“She has no status in the UK and our own Supreme Court has ruled that stripping her of her citizenship is lawful. It is deeply worrying that the European Court of Human Rights is now considering using the European Court of Human Rights to allow the UK to take her back.”