British Shamima Begum at the age of 15 joined the Islamic State. She was deprived of citizenship, but now they were allowed to return to the country

The 20-year-old Shamima Begum-a woman who still left the UK and joined the Islamic State terrorist group- received permission to return to the country in order to appeal the decision of the authorities to deprive its citizenship. The Court of Appeal in London came to the conclusion that, only being in the UK, the runner will be able to exercise his right to a fair consideration of the appeal.

Relatives Begum welcomed the court decision. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain, which is responsible for migration issues and which has taken citizenship from Begum, announced the intention to give a protest.

“BBC” writes that the decision of the Court of Appeal ordered the British authorities to help Begum get out of the refugee camp in Syria, where it is located. At the same time, upon arrival in the UK, the Begum can again be detained due to the connection with the terrorists. “She is not afraid to appear before British justice, she welcomes this. But the deprivation of her citizenship without the possibility of justification was not justice, ” said the woman’s lawyer Daniel Ferner.

Shamima Begum joined the IG at the age of 15. In Syria, she gave birth to three children. All of them died

Shamima Begum was born in the UK, her parents are emigrants from Bangladesh. In 2015, she, along with two classmates, fled to Syria to join the Islamic State. At that time, the runners were only 15 years old. Shortly after the escape, she married a fighter of IG, who came to Syria from the Netherlands. Of her two classmates, one died during the bombing, the fate of the second is unknown.

In February 2019, the Times journalists found Begum in the refugee camp. She got there after her husband was captured. Begum was in the ninth month of pregnancy and said that she had already lost two children (her third child also died later). The young woman stated that she did not regret joining the IG, but asks for forgiveness and wants to return home. The British Ministry of the Interior refused her return and deprived her of citizenship.

The basis for this was the law that allows you to cancel British citizenship "for the sake of public good." It can only be applied to people who have citizenship of another country, but Begum did not have it. Representatives of Begum appealed, but lost. In June 2019, the court concluded that the runner can be considered a citizen of Bangladesh, since her parents were born there. But the Bangladesh authorities said that the runner had no country's citizenship, did not ask him, and if she had asked, she would have been refused anyway.

If the runners return citizenship, accomplices of terrorists will be able to achieve this

The permission to enter the UK, which was achieved by Begum, does not mean that citizenship will be returned to it: its appeal will be considered by the same court, which last year recognized the deprivation of citizenship legal. But opponents of the Return of Begum to the UK believe that if a woman is let in, she will find a way to stay in the country for an indefinite period. “If Miss Begum returns to our country, it will be impossible to expel it,” said former Minister of the Interior Sajid Javid, who deprived the runners of citizenship.

Sources in the UK special services claim that the woman actively participated in the activities of the IG, in particular, widen vests for suicide bombers. There is one more concern: if Begum wins in court, this may become a precedent for other citizenship “for the sake of a public good”. There are about 150 of them, among them there are supporters of jihadists.

Western countries do not want to receive refugees from Syria. They are difficult to attract to the court

Great Britain is not the only country that does not want to take back people who once escaped in the IG. Other Western countries often refuse to return (exceptions are made mainly for children). The leader of the repatriation program was called Russia, where women and children are returned from Syria with the support of the management of Chechnya. FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov criticized this practice: “It's no secret that these women and even children are used by the leaders of terrorists as recruiters, suicide bombers, and liability terrorists.”

According to the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at the Royal College in London, Shiraz Maher, the reluctance of the West to take back supporters of the IG is due to the fact that it is difficult to collect evidence against them. As a result, the courts may appoint them a short time or completely pass acquitting sentences. This threatens with public condemnation and the growth of a terrorist threat.

But leaving SP supporters in refugee camps in Syria is also a bad decision, Maher believes. Firstly, in terrible conditions there are also children who are not to blame for anything. Secondly, shoots are regularly made from the camps. “Returning IG supporters home is clearly difficult and dangerous. But leaving them in Syria is also problematic, because they can escape, and we will lose sight of them, ”the expert said.

Olga Korelina