Shamima Begum’s lawyers may petition Strasbourg court over citizenship removal

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Shamima Begum’s lawyers could take her case to the European Court of Human Rights after she was denied the chance to challenge the removal of her British citizenship at the UK’s Supreme Court.

Last year, Ms Begum lost her appeal against the decision to revoke her citizenship on national security grounds at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in February 2019.

The decision was made after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp following her travel to so-called Islamic State-controlled territory in the country as a 15-year-old in 2015.

On Wednesday, justices at the UK’s highest court said Ms Begum could not appeal again after she lost a Court of Appeal bid in February.

In their decision, Lords Reed, Hodge and Lloyd-Jones denied Ms Begum the green light to go to the Supreme Court, finding her proposed appeal grounds “do not raise an arguable point of law”.

The three justices said that there was no arguable challenge to the Court of Appeal’s decision, including on whether Ms Begum should have been able to make representations to the then-Home Secretary before she was removed of her citizenship.

Following the ruling, Ms Begum’s lawyers at Birnberg Pierce Solicitors said they “will take every possible legal step” on her behalf, including a petition to Strasbourg.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the law firm said: “It is a matter of the gravest concern that British women and children have been arbitrarily imprisoned in a Syrian camp for five years, all detained indefinitely without any prospect of a trial.

“All other countries in the UK’s position have intervened and achieved the return of their citizens and their children.

“Two weeks ago the US State Department once again addressed the responsibility of countries to repatriate their nationals from the camps in north-east Syria. The UK is now alone in its position.

“The UK courts have for five years offered no exit route despite the critical humanitarian crisis in the camps.

“Instead the Supreme Court has today left resolution to another court, this time in Strasbourg.

“Whilst on behalf of Ms Begum we, her lawyers, will take every possible legal step including to petition the European Court of Human Rights, this is an issue that can and should as the US urges, be resolved for all nationals by their own countries.”

Director of legal charity Reprieve, Maya Foa, called for the UK to “take responsibility” for British nationals in Ms Begum’s position.

She said: “If Shamima Begum has committed crimes, she can be charged and prosecuted in a British court.

“The UK is more than capable of handling the case of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was groomed online by an organised trafficking operation.”

Ms Foa added: “Exiling British nationals like Ms Begum is about politics, not the law.

“The prior government’s failed do-nothing approach must be abandoned. Our politicians should take responsibility and repatriate the small number of British families in this position so their cases can be dealt with here in Britain.”