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Shamima Begum has lost an initial bid to challenge the removal of her British citizenship at the Supreme Court, a judicial spokesperson has said.
Her bid’s failure comes just over a month after she lost her citizenship appeal after the Court of Appeal upheld the UK’s decision in 2019.
The ruling states Begum, 24, was lawfully deprived of her citizenship and ensures she will remain in Syria with no chance of return to the UK.
Last year, Begum lost her first appeal against the decision to revoke her citizenship on national security grounds at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp following her travel to the country aged 15 in 2015.
And today, a judicial spokesperson confirmed that Begum had asked the Court of Appeal for the green light to take her case to the Supreme Court, but had been turned down.
Begum now has the opportunity to ask the Supreme Court directly for permission to have her case heard by the UK’s highest court.
While dismissing her Court of Appeal challenge in February this year, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: “It could be argued the decision in Ms Begum’s case was harsh.
“It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her own misfortune, but it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view.
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Earlier this year, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: “It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her own misfortune”
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“The only task of the court was to assess whether the deprivation decision was unlawful… Since it was not, Ms Begum’s appeal is dismissed.”
Following this decision, Begum’s solicitor Daniel Furner said: “I want to say that I’m sorry to Shamima and to her family that after five years of fighting she still hasn’t received justice in a British court, and to promise her and promise the Government that we are not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home.”
In reaction to the ruling, UN special rapporteurs claimed Begum was a “possible victim of trafficking” and remains “vulnerable” without her British citizenship.
A UN statement said: “There is a credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is an international crime, a form of modern slavery.
“Protections owed to victims of trafficking and those at risk of trafficking, especially children, must be respected to be meaningful.”
At the time, former Home Secretary Priti Patel told GB News the UN’s claims were “wrong” and slammed the intergovernmental organisation for getting involved in the case.
Patel told Patrick Christys: “It’s absolutely clear, the UN are wrong on this, basically… The UN should not be getting involved in what is a very domestic case of the United Kingdom.
“Every Home Secretary, my predecessors, and those I guess that have followed me since have been very clear on this.”
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