Shamima Begum losing her appeal proves the UK has conditional citizenship

Further, there is some merit in the argument that those advising the secretary of state see this as a black and white issue, when many would say that there are shades of grey.

This presumably refers to Shamima’s account that IS groomed, raped, and abused her. Given that she was 15 when the group trafficked her, she clearly could not consent to any sexual contact. It is evidently the UK government’s position that Shamima was – and remains – a security threat who joined IS and cannot be allowed into the UK. Instead it appears that the “shades of grey” Jay refers to are a sickening euphemism for the abuse and trafficking of a young girl.

Indeed, lawyer Samantha Knights, representing Shamima, told the SIAC hearing last November that her client had been “influenced” along with her friends by a “determined and effective” IS group “propaganda machine”. She said in written evidence there was “overwhelming” evidence Shamima had been:

recruited, transported, transferred, harboured and received in Syria for the purposes of ‘sexual exploitation’ and ‘marriage’ to an adult male.

Gareth Peirce and Daniel Furner, lawyers representing Shamima, said the ruling meant:

there is now no protection for a British child trafficked out of the UK.

They confirmed that “every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be urgently pursued”. Shamima can now appeal the decision by the SIAC in the Court of Appeal.

Reactions to the stripping of citizenship

Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said:

The power to banish a citizen like this simply shouldn’t exist in the modern world.

Shamima Begum had lived all her life in the UK right up to the point she was lured to Syria as an impressionable 15-year-old.

Activist and writer Ilyas Nagdee said:

Shamima Begum has lost her appeal and remains stateless. A ruling that at its heart abandons a young woman, who was victim of serious exploitation as a young teenager to statelessness. An abdication of responsibility by a state using a policy of deprivation that shouldn't exist.

— Ilyas Nagdee (@ilyas_nagdee) February 22, 2023

Co-editor of Red Pepper Magazine Amardeep Dhillon said:

Shamima Begum’s loss of appeal is a gross miscarriage of justice against a girl who was groomed and traumatised, and a warning sign that the citizenship of diaspora groups is contingent on avoiding criminalisation. The mainstream media is complicit in this harm.

— Amardeep S Dhillon (@AmarDeepSinghD) February 22, 2023

Academic Gurminder Bhambra pointed out the cost to all of us:

Once any government begins to remove rights from its citizens, those rights, for the rest of the population, are no longer rights, but privileges. Privileges given (and taken away) at the whim of arbitrary power.

In the process, we all lose.https://t.co/lgoEfaFbA9

— Gurminder K Bhambra (@GKBhambra) February 22, 2023

Grassroots organisers CAGE questioned the government’s claims about security threats:

The Shamima Begum case has nothing to do with national security.

Citizenship deprivation & the hostile environment policies were both part of a culture war strategy which incited anti Muslim & racist sentiment.

This is how we ended up with the most far right govt since 1945. https://t.co/VaJQdFcKQ2

— CAGE (@UK_CAGE) February 22, 2023

Dr Zubaida Haque explained that the decision is likely to have severe implications for British citizens with lineage from other countries:

Shamima Begum was born in the UK. She was raised here. She never visited Bangladesh. She lost her British citizenship on the basis that she was also a Bangladeshi national. She wasn't. SIAC's decision means that for most of us our citizenship is NOT secure https://t.co/jDJwWhjfzI

— Dr Zubaida Haque (@Zubhaque) February 22, 2023

MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy also emphasised the two-tier citizenship system:

Shamima Begum was born & groomed in the UK and trafficked to Syria as a minor by a western spy.

The Government's choice to strip her of citizenship is a dereliction of duty.

It highlights the two-tier citizenship system which now exists in our country.https://t.co/r6TG9LmbHv

— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) February 22, 2023

Conditional citizenship

Shamima has been here many times. Each time her legal battles are covered by the mainstream media, racists come crawling out of the woodwork. They deny she was ever trafficked or abused. They use her as an example of the threat of ‘Islamist extremism.’ It’s not at all surprising that the government are doggedly opposing her attempts to avoid statelessness. These are the same people who’ve enacted the Nationality and Borders Act which enshrines the ability to strip people of their citizenship into law.

Shamima’s treatment at the hands of a hostile government and a craven media says absolutely everything about what kind of country the UK is. This is a place where a child who was trafficked, raped, and abused, whose three children all died, can be left stateless and shoved towards a country she has never known, simply because of where her parents come from. This is what it’s like to not be white in Britain. It doesn’t matter who you are, who you know, how integrated you become, or anything like that. If you’re a person of colour, and Muslim on top of that, your citizenship can and will be stripped away from you.