The European Court of Human Rights has asked the UK government to justify its 2019 decision to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship. Judges in Strasbourg have posed four questions to the Home Office, including whether the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, had a duty under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights to consider if Begum was a victim of trafficking before revoking her citizenship.
Begum, now 26, left London as a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2015 to join Islamic State in Syria. Her lawyers argue she was a child trafficking victim, having been “married off” to an IS fighter and losing three children in infancy. She remains stateless in a Syrian refugee camp after UK courts upheld the citizenship removal.
The court’s intervention has been welcomed by Begum’s legal team. Gareth Peirce of Birnberg Peirce Solicitors said it was “impossible to dispute” that the teenager was lured for sexual exploitation, and criticised the government for ignoring state duties to protect her. The Home Office responded that any decision made to protect national security would be robustly defended.
The move has drawn criticism from Conservative and Reform politicians, who accuse the European court of overreach. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Begum had “no place” in the UK, while Reform’s Richard Tice called for withdrawal from the European human rights treaty.
