An Islamic State (IS) bride who last year pleaded with officials to allow her back into England after moving to Syria has lost a legal challenge to restore her British citizenship.
Shamima Begum left the United Kingdom, where she was born, in 2015 at the age of 15 to join IS. She re-emerged last year in a Syrian refugee camp, begging British officials to allow her to return home to have her third child. However, Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship and her new-born baby died.
At the time there were concerns about the legitimacy of the British Home Office revoking her citizenship, as under international law, an individual cannot be made stateless by a nation cancelling their citizenship.
However, on Friday, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London ruled against an appeal by Begum, saying that she was not improperly deprived of nationality. This means she cannot return to London.
Last year it was reported that Begum's parents were of Bangladeshi origins so she could obtain a Bangladeshi passport. But the Bangladeshi Government said at the time that Begum would not be allowed into the country, which she has never visited. Her lawyers said Begum could be hanged if she was forced to go to Bangladesh.
Begum also told ITV News last February that she was seeking Dutch citizenship as her IS fighter husband, Yago Riedijk, is from Holland.
According to the Guardian, Begum's lawyer immediately suggested an appeal against the decision, adding that Begum faced increased dangers. They also said she hadn't been able to properly consult with her lawyers.
"The stark reality of her situation was brought before the court last year as a matter of exceptional urgency - how could she in any meaningful and fair way challenge the decision to deprive her of her nationality, a young woman in grave danger who had by then lost her three children?
"The judgment will be hard to explain to her. The logic of the decision will appear baffling, accepting as it does the key underlying factual assessments of extreme danger and extreme unfairness and yet declining to provide any legal remedy.
"Now, in February 2020, the dangers Ms Begum faces have increased; her chance of survival even more precariously balanced than before."
Lawyers are also questioning whether the British Government had legitimate security grounds to bar Begum returning back home.
The Commission's decision on Friday also highlighted that while conditions at the al-Roj camp, where Begum is in Syria, has abhorrent conditions, her human rights were not protected under European law.
This angered Maya Foa, the director of the human rights group Reprieve.
"The court today found that the detention conditions of British nationals in north-east Syria constitute torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," Foa said.
"It is rank hypocrisy for the government to abandon British families to torture, which it professes to categorically oppose. The only just solution is for the government to repatriate British families, and to try people in British courts if they have charges to answer."
The Home Office welcomed the decision by the Commission but didn't want to comment further while other legal proceedings were underway.
In September, Begum said she now hated IS and was "constantly making babies" while with them. She said she had mental health issues and again called for Britain to allow her to return. Current Home Secretary Priti Patel responded by saying there was "no way, no way" the woman could return.
A Sky News poll found 78 percent of people supported the decision to revoke Begum's citizenship.
