Judges have refused to save Shamima Begum. Labour should bring her back to the UK to face justice | Maya Foa

Judges have refused to save Shamima Begum. Labour should bring her back to the UK to face justice | Maya Foa

Stripping her of her citizenship was a political act by a bullying home secretary. Keir Starmer’s government can right that wrong

The supreme court’s refusal on Wednesday to hear Shamima Begum’s appeal against the removal of her UK citizenship will be a crushing disappointment, but it is unlikely to have come as a shock.

British courts have acknowledged that she is in all likelihood a child trafficking victim, groomed by Islamic State for sexual exploitation, and that stripping her of her British citizenship leaves her effectively stateless; but that the law as it stands allows a home secretary to remove all the rights that come with a UK passport from someone such as Begum, possibly without notice, and certainly without due process. Yesterday, three justices at Britain’s highest court agreed.

Maya Foa is the director of the human rights charity Reprieve

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