- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
A TEENAGER who was stripped of her British citizenship after leaving London to join the Daesh (Islamic State) group has asked the government to re-evaluate her case and show “a bit more mercy” as she seeks to return to Britain.
Shamima Begum, 19, left to join the Daesh when she was 15 but now wants to come back.
Her British citizenship was revoked on security grounds.
“I would like them (British politicians) to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy in their heart, you know,” she told Sky News. Asked whether she could change or be rehabilitated, she said: “I am willing to change.”
Begum was found in a detention camp in Syria last week, and her fate has sparked a dispute over the ramifications of leaving a 19-year-old mother with a jihadist fighter’s child to fend for herself in a war zone.
Meanwhile, her family said Friday (22) it would challenge the British government’s decision to revoke her citizenship.
A letter to home secretary Sajid Javid written by Begum’s sister Renu on behalf of her family also called on the government to help bring her newborn son to Britain.
“We hope you understand our position in this respect and why we must, therefore, assist Shamima in challenging your decision to take away the one thing that is her only hope at rehabilitation, her British citizenship,” the family’s letter said.
Renu Begum’s letter also asked Javid to help “in bringing my nephew home to us”.
International law prevents a government from rendering a person stateless, but Britain reportedly believes that Begum also has Bangladeshi citizenship due to her parents, although she was born in Britain.
The Bangladeshi government said there was “no question” of her being allowed to enter, and there is legal argument about whether simply having Bangaldeshi parents bestows citizenship.
Begum’s baby was born before she was told of the decision to revoke her citizenship, and is therefore British and has a right to return.
The teenager said she was “shocked” by Britain’s decision, saying “if you take that away from me, I don’t have anything. I don’t think they are allowed to do that.”
She has mentioned the possibility of applying for citizenship in the Netherlands because her husband, a Daesh fighter believed to be held by Kurdish forces in Syria, is a Dutch national.
Public sentiment hardened against Begum after she showed little remorse in initial interviews from the refugee camp.
Her family said on Friday they were “shocked and appalled” at the “vile comments” she made in the media.
“I have watched Shamima on our televisions open her mouth and set fire to our nation’s emotions,” said her sister’s letter.
“These are not representative of British values, and my family entirely reject the comments she has made, but… we as her family cannot simply abandon her.”
The family argued that it made “every fathomable effort” to prevent her from joining the Daesh which it called a “murderous and misogynistic cult”.
Begum and two school friends fled her east London home to join the terror network four years ago.
With the Daesh crumbling, many European countries are now having to confront whether to bring back its citizens who travelled to join the group and prosecute them at home, or bar them from entry over security concerns.
Some 400 people who joined the Daesh in the early stages of the Syria conflict have since returned to Britain and around 40 of them have been prosecuted.
There are believed to be around 10 British women who travelled to support the Daesh who are now refugees in Syria.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday (19) that Begum should be allowed to return.
“Taking somebody’s citizenship away is not the right thing to do. I think she should be brought back.”
Javid told lawmakers Wednesday (20) that revoking citizenship was “a powerful tool” not used lightly.
“But when someone turns their back on (our) fundamental values and supports terror they don’t have an automatic right to return to the UK,” he said.
He has previously said that more than 100 individuals had already been deprived of their British citizenship.
Javid hinted that Begum’s newborn son — her third child, after her previous son and daughter died in recent months — could be treated differently.
“Children should not suffer, so if a parent does lose their British citizenship it does not affect the rights of their child,” he said.
(AFP, Reuters)
