Shabana Mahmood has vowed to challenge European judges to prevent Shamima Begum from returning to Britain.
The European Court of Human Rights has demanded answers from the UK over the decision to revoke Ms Begum’s citizenship after she travelled from east London to territory held by the so-called Islamic State.
The former UK national left the country aged 15 and was stripped of her citizenship in February 2019 on the grounds of posing a threat to national security after being “married off” to an IS fighter and she remains in a Syrian camp.
A document published by the European court last month states Ms Begum is challenging the decision under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – prohibition of slavery and forced labour.
The case was lodged in December 2024 after she was denied the chance to challenge the removal of her British citizenship at the UK’s Supreme Court.
Sources say Ms Mahmood is however prepared to defend the decision to revoke Ms Begum’s citizenship, raising the prospect of a potential legal battle.
“The Home Secretary will robustly defend the decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship, which has been tested and upheld time and again in our domestic courts,” a Government source said.
“The Home Secretary will always put this country’s national security first.”
Sources say Shabana Mahmood will ‘robustly defend’ the decision to revoke Ms Begum’s citizenship
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The Conservatives said Ms Begum should not be allowed back into the UK “under any circumstances”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “She has no place in the UK and our own Supreme Court found that depriving her of citizenship was lawful.
“It is deeply concerning the European Court of Human Rights is now looking at using the ECHR to make the UK take her back.”
Among four questions being posed to the Home Office, judges in Strasbourg have asked: “Did the Secretary of State have a positive obligation, by virtue of Article 4 of the Convention, to consider whether the applicant had been a victim of trafficking, and whether any duties or obligations to her flowed from that fact, before deciding to deprive her of her citizenship?”
Shamima Begum was stripped of her citizenship in 2019
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Responding to the move, Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, which is representing Ms Begum, said the court’s communication “presents an unprecedented opportunity” for the UK and Ms Begum to “grapple with the significant considerations raised in her case and ignored, sidestepped or violated up to now by previous UK administrations”.
Lawyer Gareth Peirce said: “It is impossible to dispute that a 15-year-old British child was in 2014/15 lured, encouraged and deceived for the purposes of sexual exploitation to leave home and travel to Isil-controlled territory for the known purpose of being given, as a child, to an Isil fighter to propagate children for the Islamic State.
“It is equally impossible not to acknowledge the catalogue of failures to protect a child known for weeks beforehand to be at high risk when a close friend had disappeared to Syria in an identical way and via an identical route.”
Ms Begum grew up in Bethnal Green, east London, before travelling to Syria at the age of 15 almost 11 years ago.
Ms Begum, now aged 26, remains in the al-Roj camp in Syria
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She made the journey alongside two school friends to join the Islamic State.
After arriving, she married Dutch Islamic convert, Yago Riedijk, and had three children, all of whom died in infancy.
Then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship in 2019, based on her eligibility to claim Bangladeshi citizenship, meaning she would not become “stateless”.
The UK Supreme Court later upheld this ruling.
Now 26, Ms Begum remains in the al-Roj camp in Syria, which houses thousands of former jihadis.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Government will always protect the UK and its citizens.
“That is why Shamima Begum – who posed a national security threat – had her British citizenship revoked and is unable to return to the UK.
“We will robustly defend any decision made to protect our national security.”