LONDON — Britain said Tuesday that it was revoking the citizenship of Shamima Begum, a teenager who four years ago fled to become an “ISIS bride” and has attracted massive public attention for her effort to return home with her new baby.
The government’s decision came as the Islamic State was losing the last of its territory in Syria and countries across Europe are struggling with what to do about their citizens who went to fight on behalf of the terrorist group.
The British Home Office informed Begum’s family of its decision in a letter on Tuesday and asked them to make their daughter aware of the potential for her to appeal.
“It’s kind of heartbreaking to read,” a teary Begum, 19, told an ITV News reporter who showed her a copy of the letter. “My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier for me to come back to the U.K. when I was speaking to them in Baghouz. It’s kind of hard to swallow.”
Begum is living in a Syrian refugee camp, where she gave birth to a boy last weekend. Her baby also has potential claims on British citizenship.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Tuesday: “Children should not suffer, so if a parent loses their British citizenship it does not affect the rights of their child.”
British teenagers Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum leave from Britain’s Gatwick Airport on their way to Syria, in this CCTV video grab from Feb. 17, 2015. (Ho/AFP/Getty Images)
Under British law, the Home Secretary can revoke citizenship if it is “conducive to the public good” and if it does not make a person stateless. More than 100 dual nationals were stripped of their British citizenship in 2017.
Some immigration experts have suggested that because Begum’s parents are from Bangladesh, she could claim citizenship there.
But Bangladesh on Tuesday said she “is not a Bangladeshi citizen.”
“She is a British citizen by birth and never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh…,” foreign affairs minister Shahrial Alam said in a statement. “There is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh.”
The lawyer representing Begum’s family said Begum, who was born and raised in the east London area of Bethnal Green, “never had a Bangladeshi passport.”
“The government is not going to win this,” attorney Tasnime Akunjee told the Independent newspaper. “There is case law saying people in these circumstances are stateless and we will win.”
Fahad Ansari, an immigration lawyer, said children of Bangladeshi parents are automatically citizens at birth. This lapses at age 21 if they do not make an effort to retain that citizenship.
He added Begum’s lawyers could still argue she was now “de facto stateless,” because she is in a war zone with no travel documents or access to consular services. She has “no way of benefiting or asserting that citizenship,” he said.
Speaking with ITV, Begum said perhaps she could apply for citizenship in the Netherlands, which is where her husband is from.
She urged the Home Office to “review my case again and have a bit more sympathy for me and understanding and give me a reason why they see me as a threat to the U.K.”
Last week, a Times of London journalist tracked Begum down in the refugee camp. She said she didn’t regret going to Syria when she was 15, but she now wanted to return home and lead a quiet life.
Begum has said she was merely a housewife in Syria and that there is no evidence she committed any crimes there.
If she did return to Britain, she could face prosecution for joining a terrorist organization.
Other European countries are grappling with similar questions about their citizens in Syria and Iraq.
In Belgium, the government has been fighting a judge’s order to repatriate six Belgian children along with their mothers, former Islamic State sympathizers who twice traveled to Syria.
France is considering bringing back more than 100 former Islamic State fighters, who would face trial, along with their families.
The idea of stripping dual citizens convicted of terrorism of their French nationality was among the initial proposals of then-President François Hollande after a string of terrorist attacks in 2015. But Hollande was ultimately forced to abandon the plan, which would have required adding a clause to the French constitution permitting denaturalization.
Many European nations have been content to leave citizens who may sympathize with the Islamic State in Syria, gambling that their societies will be safer if radicalized citizens are kept far from their borders. But the Kurdish fighters who have kept many of the former caliphate residents under lock and key worry that with the U.S. pullout, they may need to shift resources elsewhere, disbanding camps and allowing the residents to disperse.
President Trump over the weekend threatened E.U. allies that if they did not repatriate their citizens, the United States would simply let them go — and Europe could face a surge in terrorist attacks as a result.
James McAuley in Paris and Michael Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to this report.
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