Home Secretary refuses to let jihadi bride return to UK

BRITISH jihadi bride Shamima Begum has been told by Home Secretary Priti Patel to give up on any hopes of being allowed to return to the UK.

Ms Begum, now 19, left Britain to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria in 2015.

She later married Dutch-born Yago Riedijk and spent more than three years living under the group’s rule. But in an interview last week Ms Begum pleaded to be allowed to return home, saying her only role in the so-called caliphate was to “make babies”.

However, when Ms Begum’s request was put to Ms Patel the Home Secretary replied: “No way, no way.”

“Our job is to keep our country safe,” Ms Patel said. “We don’t need people who have left our country to be part of a death cult and to perpetrate that ideology.

“We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country — and that includes this woman.

“I am simply not willing to allow anybody who has been an active supporter or campaigner for IS in this country.”

Ms Begum has claimed she is suffering from mental health problems and that she now “hates” so-called IS following the death of her three babies.

The Home Secretary’s refusal to soften her stance on Ms Begum’s coincides with the plea of another IS bride to be allowed to return home.

Tooba Gondal (25) left her home in London to join the socalled caliphate in 2015.

During her time in Syria she married three times to a succession of IS fighters, all of whom are now dead, and gave birth to two children. She and her threeyear-old son and 18-month-old daughter are now being held in the Ain Issa camp in Syria. Ms Gondal was previously accused of grooming young women online to become jihadi brides, and posted her support of the Paris terror attacks.

But she branded so-called IS “criminals” and pleaded for her and her children to be allowed to return home.

“I know what the general public view me as, but I just want a chance to show everybody I’m a changed person,” she said.