Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ISIS bride’s baby will be welcome in the UK... on his own
Javid: Mum’s ban must not hurt tot
HOME Secretary Sajid Javid has left the door open for Islamic State bride Shamima Begum’s baby boy to come to the UK.
Mr Javid told MPS his ban on Shamima returning here will not have an impact on the newborn’s nationality.
The Tory said: “Children should not suffer. So, if a parent does lose their British citizenship, it does not affect the rights of their child.”
Speaking from the Syrian refugee camp where she is living, Shamima said her ban from Britain is “unjust”.
The 19-year-old, who fled London for Syria aged 15, said Mr Javid cancelling her passport is “a bit upsetting and frustrating”. She added: “My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier for me to come back to the UK.”
Her family’s lawyer has vowed to fight the ban, which was seemingly dealt a major blow last night by Bangladesh. International law forbids nations from making people stateless.
Mr Javid can only revoke the passport legally if he thinks Shamima can become a national of another country. It was understood he was planning to justify his decision by arguing the teen, who reportedly has a Bangladeshi mother, is therefore a citizen of Bangladesh.
But now the Asian country has insisted she will not be allowed in. Shahriar Alam, State Minister of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh, said: “[Our] government is deeply concerned that [Shamima] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship.” Experts have also cast doubt on Mr Javid’s decision remaining in force.
Rachel Logan, Amnesty International UK’S legal programme director, said: “The Home Secretary’s revoking of Shamima Begum’s British citizenship is legally and morally questionable.”
Lord Carlile, former independent reviewer of terror legislation, said it is a “complex issue” that could take two years to resolve.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: “If the Government is proposing to make [her] stateless it is not just a breach of international human rights law but is a failure to meet our security obligations to the international community.” Meanwhile, Shamima has suggested she could turn to the Netherlands for sanctuary as her 27-year-old Jihadi husband Yago Riedijk is Dutch. After fleeing to Syria he was sentenced in his absence to six years’ jail in his homeland for joining terror group IS.
Shamima said: “Maybe I can ask for citizenship in Holland. If he gets sent to prison in Holland I can wait for him.” She has said her husband is now under arrest in Syria.
She fled Bethnal Green, East London, in 2015 with two other girls and joined IS in Syria. Last week she declared she wanted to come home with her son, saying two of her children have already died there.
Shamima appeared unrepentant about seeing severed heads, and seemed to justify the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people.
My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier to return SHAMIMA BEGUM TALKS ABOUT HER FRUSTRATION