Shamima Begum, now 24, has lost a series of legal challenges against the removal of her British citizenship. She left the UK as a teenager in 2015 to join the Islamic State group in Syria and is barred from returning.
Born in the UK to Bangladeshi heritage parents, Begum was 15 when she travelled to Syria with two other east London schoolgirls. She married an IS fighter and had three children, none of whom survived.
Her citizenship was revoked in 2019 on national security grounds. The government can remove citizenship if it is for the public good and would not leave the person stateless. Begum was deemed eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship by descent, though Bangladesh has denied this.
In February 2020, a tribunal ruled the removal lawful. Subsequent appeals were dismissed, including at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in 2023 and the Court of Appeal in February 2024. On 25 March 2024, she lost an initial bid to take her case to the Supreme Court.
Between 2010 and 2022, 220 people were stripped of British citizenship for the public good, mostly on national security grounds. The highest number was 104 in 2017, compared to three in 2022.
