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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Shamima Begum 'a bit shocked' over UK plan to revoke citizenship

Speaking from a refugee camp in Syria, the 19-year-old told CNN affiliate ITV that it was "kind of heartbreaking to read" a copy of the Home Office letter sent to her parents informing them of its decision.
Begum, who gave birth over the weekend and is seeking a return to Britain, called the move "hard to swallow" and described it as "a bit unjust on me and my son."
"My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier for me to come back to the UK," she said.
ITV News reported Tuesday that Begum's mother had received a letter from the Home Office which said an order to remove her citizenship had been made. The letter asked Begum's family to make her aware of the decision and of her right to appeal.

Debate over legality of UK move

The decision has sparked a debate about the legality behind it. A spokesman for the Home Office told CNN that the Home Secretary can deprive someone of their British citizenship "where it would not render the individual stateless."
But it was unclear whether British-born Begum has citizenship of more than one country. Her lawyer, Mohammed Akunjee, told Britain's Press Association that despite being of Bangladeshi heritage, she does not have a Bangladeshi passport and does not have dual citizenship. CNN was seeking further comment from Akunjee.
Hashi Mohamed -- a lawyer who helped write a report into deprivation of nationality with the UK's previous reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson -- told CNN that the attempt to revoke Begum's citizenship was an "unprecedented" reworking of British immigration law.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum will have her British citizenship revoked, family lawyer says
Mohamed said UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid seemed to be relying on a section in the 2014 Immigration Act, which states that nationality can be revoked if there are "reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, to become a national of such a country or territory."
Mohamed said Javid's move had opened a can of worms which risked creating a "two-tiered British nationality" which could mean that "if you were born in bred in the UK, but your parents were born somewhere else and had dual nationality -- then your nationality as somebody born and raised in the UK is at risk."
Mohamed also noted that the decision appeared to run against the Home Office's 2018 counter-terrorism policy, which includes an illustrated example of what to do with women who have joined ISIS and children returning to the UK.
"Following the mother's detention the British authorities are notified. DNA testing of the child is conducted to establish their entitlement to a British passport. Given that the mother has lived in Daesh-held territory, the Home Secretary and a judge approve the use of a Temporary Exclusion Order (TEO) to manage her return to the UK," the 2018 guidance said.
On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said there was a "very clear set of criteria" on which the Home Secretary considers depriving British nationals of their citizenship, but declined to provide further insight into the government's rationale.
Trump tells Europe to take back ISIS fighters, warns they could be released
Begum was 15 when she left flew out of Gatwick Airport with two classmates and traveled to Syria. The young women, all from the Bethnal Green Academy in east London, were to join another classmate who had traveled to Syria months earlier.
The Times of London reported in mid-February that Begum was nine months pregnant and that she wanted to come home to have her child. She said she had two other children during her time in Syria who died in infancy from malnutrition and illness.
Days later, she had her baby. From a Syrian refugee camp of 39,000 people in al-Hawl, Begum told The Times she had no regrets about traveling to Syria but told the paper that "the caliphate is over."

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