Supreme Court rules that Shamima Begum cannot return to UK to appeal against the removal of citizenship

Friday 26 February 2021. The UK’s highest court today ordered that Shamima Begum, who left the Britain to join Islamic State group in Syria as a 15-year-old teenager, cannot return and fight her citizenship case.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that her rights were not breached when she was refused permission to return, overturning a previous Appeal Court decision.

Ms Begum, 21, wants to return to the UK to challenge the Home Secretary's decision to strip her of citizenship and revoke her British nationality.

She was 15 when she and two other east London schoolgirls left their home in February 2015 and travelled to Syria to join IS where she married a freedom fighter and had three children. She now lives in a camp controlled by armed guards in northern Syria, but her children have since died.

The then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, effectively leaving the teenager stateless.

In 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled to allow her into the UK to appeal against the decision, on grounds that she could not effectively do so from the camp in northern Syria.

The Home Office subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that allowing her to return to the UK "would create significant national security risks".

Lord Reed, president of the Supreme Court, said the government had been entitled to prevent Ms Begum from returning to the UK.

Announcing the ruling, Lord Reed said: "The Supreme Court unanimously allows all of the home secretary's appeals and dismisses Ms Begum's cross-appeal."

He said the Court of Appeal's judgment "did not give the home secretary's assessment the respect which it should have received" given the role's "responsibility for making such assessments" and accountability to parliament.

Lord Reed added the Court of Appeal had "mistakenly believed that, when an individual's right to have a fair hearing... came into conflict with the requirements of national security, her right to a fair hearing must prevail."

He said the right to a fair hearing did "not trump all other considerations, such as the safety of the public".

She now remains in citizenship limbo, with no right to return to the UK under the law.

Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC the Supreme Court's judgement had "reaffirmed the Home Secretary's authority to make vital national security decisions".

She added: "The government will always take the strongest possible action to protect our national security and our priority remains maintaining the safety and security of our citizens."

 

 

UK citizenship

Citizenship grants the right of citizens to live in a country.

UK citizens have rights to things like welfare benefits, free education and healthcare, as well as the right to vote in elections.

You can gain the right to British citizenship if:

·        you or your parents are born in the UK

·        you legally live in the UK for a period of time, normally five years

·        marry a British citizen and have been in the UK for three years

Unlike people born in the United States, being born in the UK does not give you the right to citizenship. In the year to the end of March 2020, 163,624 people were granted British citizenship.

The UK allows dual nationality or for people to be citizens of more than one country.

How can you lose UK citizenship?

In the UK, a person can have their citizenship revoked, for the following:

·        Where t is deemed to be "for the public good" and would not make them stateless

·        The person obtained citizenship through fraud

·        Their actions could harm UK interests and they can claim citizenship elsewhere

Ms Begum was stripped of UK citizenship for the public good reason.

Although the UK has responsibilities under international law to avoid people being left stateless, in February 2020, a tribunal ruled that removing Ms Begum's citizenship was lawful because she was "a citizen of Bangladesh by descent" though her parents. However, Bangladesh claimed she would not be allowed into the country.

In most cases, the removal of citizenship, unlike revoking residency, involves serious threats to national security, such as terrorism or serious organised crime. British citizens can also have their passports taken away.

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