Shamima Begum is not going to be allowed to problem the elimination of her British citizenship on the Supreme Court docket, judges have dominated.
The 24-year-old hoped to overturn the federal government’s choice to revoke her citizenship on nationwide safety grounds after she travelled to Syria as a teen to hitch the Islamic State group.
Justices on the UK’s highest courtroom mentioned Ms Begum couldn’t attraction towards an earlier Court docket of Enchantment ruling because the grounds of her case “don’t elevate an debatable level of legislation”.
It was Ms Begum’s final probability to problem the revocation of her citizenship inside the UK authorized system. However her attorneys advised the BBC they’d take the case to the European Court docket of Human Rights (ECHR).
Ms Begum, who left Bethnal Inexperienced, east London, with two schoolfriends in 2015, was later present in a Syrian refugee camp.
She married an Islamic State fighter quickly after arriving and went on to have three kids, none of whom survived.
Ms Begum was stripped of her British citizenship on nationwide safety grounds in 2019 by the then-House Secretary Sajid Javid, leaving her unable to return to the UK.
She stays in a camp managed by armed guards in northern Syria.
Final yr, she misplaced her attraction towards the choice to revoke her citizenship on the Particular Immigration Appeals Fee (SIAC).
She then took her case to the Court docket of Enchantment – the place three judges unanimously dismissed her bid to regain British citizenship in February.
Then in March, Ms Begum misplaced an preliminary bid to problem the elimination of her citizenship on the Supreme Court docket.
Her remaining possibility was to ask the Supreme Court docket immediately for permission to have her case heard.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday three justices on the Supreme Court docket unanimously dismissed the bid.
Lords Reed, Hodge and Lloyd-Jones discovered that the grounds on which she had primarily based her case didn’t legally undermine the choice to strip her of her UK citizenship.
These included questioning the legality of her not with the ability to argue towards the choice to strip her of her citizenship earlier than it occurred.
In an announcement, Ms Begum’s authorized crew mentioned it “will take each potential authorized step” to revive her citizenship, together with petitioning the ECHR in Strasbourg to listen to her case.
It mentioned that the Supreme Court docket had “left decision” to the Strasbourg courtroom.
Of their ruling, the justices discovered it was a matter for the European courtroom to determine whether or not the method to deprive Ms Begum of British citizenship ought to have thought-about whether or not she was a possible sufferer of trafficking.
The Supreme Court docket justices additionally affirmed an earlier ruling which discovered these issues had no materials bearing on the choice beneath UK legislation.
Her attorneys added: “It’s a matter of the gravest concern that British ladies and kids have been arbitrarily imprisoned in a Syrian camp for 5 years, all detained indefinitely with none prospect of a trial.
“All different international locations within the UK’s place have intervened and achieved the return of their residents and their kids.”
Reacting to the ruling, Maya Foa, director of human rights charity Reprieve, mentioned: “Exiling British nationals like Ms Begum is about politics, not the legislation.
“The prior authorities’s failed do-nothing strategy have to be deserted. Our legislators ought to take accountability and repatriate the small variety of British households on this place so their instances could be handled right here in Britain.”
Ms Begum is held in Camp Roj in north-east Syria, which holds practically 3,000 people, 65% of whom are kids, in keeping with the UN.
Amnesty Worldwide UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds described the ruling as “deeply regarding” as she was “now exiled in harmful and inhuman circumstances” within the detention camp.
He added: “Stripping Shamima Begum’s nationality was profoundly unsuitable – she is and has all the time been British.”
The House Workplace mentioned it famous the choice of the Supreme Court docket, however that it “could be inappropriate to remark additional presently”.
The 2 different women Ms Begum travelled to Syria with – Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana – are actually each regarded as useless.
The Shamima Begum Story podcast is available on BBC Sounds and a characteristic size documentary of the identical identify is on BBC iPlayer (UK solely).
