Where is Shamima Begum now? – The Sun
SHAMIMA BEGUM has claimed she was "groomed" by Isis Jihadis while she was in Syria.
Begum, now 22, fled to Syria in February 2015 and lived under Isis rule for more than three years before she was found.
Where is Shamima Begum now?
As of September 2019, Begum had been living in the Al Hawl camp in Syria.
She is now thought to be living in the Roj camp in the north of the country.
Begum claimed in a September 2021 interview with Good Morning Britain she had been "groomed" by members of ISIS.
She told said: "I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims, because I know I did nothing in IS but be a mother and a wife.
"These claims are being made to make me look worse because the Government do not have anything on me.
"There is no evidence because nothing ever happened."
She added: "I would rather die than go back to IS."
Asked whether she was groomed by ISIS, she said: "I think yes, I was groomed and taken advantage of and manipulated into coming."
Speaking previously, the jihadi poster girl said she would rather be in a British jail so she could access education and psychiatric help.
She told the Daily Mail: "Mentally I am in a really bad way. I need therapy to deal with my grief. It is so hard. I have lost all my children.
“I have no real friends. I have lost all the friends who came with me. Now I do not have anyone.
"I would like to be at home. There is more safety in a British prison, more education and access to family.”
“I hate these women and what they stand for and what they believe in and that they think they can terrorise anyone who does not share their views.”
Despite her plea, then home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship, making her "a citizen of Bangladesh by descent", against which she has appealed.
In September 2019 her plea to be re-granted British citizenship was further rejected by Priti Patel, the current Home Secretary who said there's "no way" she'll be allowed back.
Will Shamima Begum return to the UK?
The Supreme Court in ruled in February 2021 that the 21-year-old will NOT be allowed to return to the UK.
Begum cannot come back to Britain for a court case to reclaim her British passport due to concerns over the safety of the public.
Lord Reed said Begum's attempt to reinstate her citizenship should be postponed until she is no longer considered a potential threat to Brits.
He said: "The right to a fair hearing does not trump all other considerations, such as the safety of the public.
"If a vital public interest makes it impossible for a case to be fairly heard then the courts cannot ordinarily hear it.
"The appropriate response to the problem in the present case is for the deprivation hearing to be stayed – or postponed – until Ms Begum is in a position to play an effective part in it without the safety of the public being compromised.
"That is not a perfect solution, as it is not known how long it may be before that is possible.
"But there is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the present kind."
What did Shamima Begum do?
Begum and two pals – Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase – ran away to Syria in February 2015.
Begum used her elder sister’s passport to flee with her Bethnal Green Academy friends.
The trio flew to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria with the aid of smugglers.
Within weeks of arriving, Shamima was married to Isis jihadi Yago Riedijk, 27, from Holland.
They had three children who died from malnutrition and disease.
The couple were separated as they fled Baghouz, the village where a few hundred Isis fighters are holed up in a desperate last stand.
Shamima ended up in a Kurdish refugee camp where she has gave birth to her third child, but this baby also passed away.
Eldest sister Renu revealed that her family had lost contact with her for the “longest time” until she was found by a Times journalist.
When was she found?
Begum was discovered by a Times journalist in a camp filled with refugees escaping the battle for the final Isis stronghold.
She said she walked away from the embattled village of Baghouz because she “could not endure any more”.
But she also said she did not regret joining Isis, boasting she had a "good time" under the terror regime and said seeing severed heads “didn’t faze me at all”.
Speaking in February 2019, she told Sky News British people should "have sympathy towards me".
She claimed: "When I went to Syria I was just a housewife for the entire four years. I never did anything dangerous. I didn't know what I was getting into when I left.
"I was hoping that maybe for the sake of me and my child they'd let me come back. Because I can't live in this camp forever."
However she also told journalists she supports the rape and murder of Yazidi sex slaves, and the Manchester Arena bombing was "fair justification" for air raids in Syria.
What was previously said about Shamima returning to the UK?
The then Home Secretary Sajid Javid took action and stripped Shamima of her British citizenship in February 2019.
But Bangladeshi officials said the teen was not a citizen of the country so there was “no question” of her being allowed in.
The Home Office had claimed she has dual British-Bangladesh nationality due to her parents being from Bangladesh.
Rules say the Government cannot leave anyone "stateless".
On March 20, 2019, her family formally started their legal challenge to reverse Sajid Javid's decision to strip the Isis bride of her UK citizenship.
The family argued the Home Secretary's decision was unfair because hundreds of other Brits who joined the terror group have been allowed to return.
Begum's mum claimed her daughter's life was in danger and was suffering poor treatment in the Syrian refugee camp.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) rejected both appeals by October 2019 – leading her to take her case to the Court of Appeal (CoA).
SIAC found that “conditions in the al-Roj camp would breach the appellant’s rights under Article 3” of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment.
But it said the decision did not breach the Home Office’s policy on the extraterritorial application of human rights.
The two-day CoA hearing before Lord Justice Flaux, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh was live-streamed on the judiciary’s YouTube channel.
The hearing began at 10.30am on Thursday, June 11, before the Court ruled on July 16 that she could return to the UK to aid her appeal.
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