The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that the revocation of the British citizenship of former ISIS affiliate Shamima Begum, one of three English women who in 2015, as teenagers, fled from the UK to Syria to join the terrorist group, was legitimate. The revocation was confirmed about a year ago by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a court that specifically deals with decisions on the revocation of citizenship, but Begum’s lawyers had appealed by submitting the case to the Court of Appeal: after this new decision Begum did not he will no longer be able to return to the UK and will have to remain in Syria, where he currently lives.
In 2019 the United Kingdom government decided to remove British citizenship from Begum, who has Bangladeshi origins but never had Bangladeshi citizenship: she is now stateless, that is, she has no citizenship, and therefore cannot leave Syria because she cannot travel. At the time of that decision, Begum was in a refugee camp in Syria and wanted to return to the UK. The British government was widely criticized for its decision to strip her of her citizenship, especially after Begum’s three-week-old son died of pneumonia: critics said the UK should not have allowed Begum and her baby to remain in the refugee camp. Since then there have been various sentences and appeals, until the last one which confirmed the legitimacy of the revocation.