UK Supreme Court refuses to hear Shamima Begum citizenship appeal

The UK Supreme Court refused to hear Shamima Begum's appeal on Wednesday against the government's decision to deprive her of British citizenship, despite concerns that she may have been a victim of child trafficking when she left for Syria as a schoolgirl.

Three judges from the UK's final court of appeal said Begum could not appeal against an earlier ruling that stripped her of her citizenship, saying "the grounds of appeal do not raise an arguable point of law".

Begum was 15 when she ran away from home in London in 2015 with two school friends and travelled to territory in Syria controlled by the Islamic State group. 

Begum's legal team argued that the 2019 decision to remove her British citizenship was unlawful on four grounds, stating that authorities had failed to stop her being trafficked and that she had the right to speak to the Home Secretary who made the decision - something she was denied. 

However, the Supreme Court dismissed her case and said her right to speak to the Home Secretary "would be liable to undermine the effectiveness of such a decision in cases concerned with national security".

"It could be argued that the decision in Ms Begum’s case was harsh," said Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr as she delivered the judgment at Court of Appeal London court.

"It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her own misfortune. But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view."

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Begum was stripped of her citizenship after she was found in northeastern Syria, held in a camp for the families of suspected IS fighters and people fleeing IS territory as western-backed Kurdish-led forces defeated the militant group.

Both of the school friends with whom she had travelled with, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, had by then been killed.

Begum has since remained in the camp, where she gave birth to a baby who died weeks later. She had previously said she had lost two other children, also born in Syria.

In 2022, Begum's lawyers told the Special Immigration Appeals Court she was a victim of human trafficking and that Britain created a "two-tier" system of citizenship by taking away her passport.

The British government argues that Begum, born in the UK, is entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents. However, Bangladeshi authorities have rejected claims that she is a Bangladeshi national.