{"id":39275,"date":"2023-10-24T16:11:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miamiheatnation.com\/?p=39275"},"modified":"2023-10-24T16:11:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:11:59","slug":"jihadi-bride-shamima-begum-is-a-security-threat-despite-trafficking-claim-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miamiheatnation.com\/politics\/jihadi-bride-shamima-begum-is-a-security-threat-despite-trafficking-claim-ho\/","title":{"rendered":"Jihadi bride Shamima Begum is a security threat despite trafficking claim, Ho…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jihadi bride Shamima Begum can be both a national security threat and a victim of trafficking, the Court of Appeal has heard.<\/p>\n

The Home Office is fighting the former ISIS fanatic\u2019s bid to have her British citizenship restored after it was stripped by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid.<\/p>\n

Ms Begum\u2019s lawyer claimed the decision was unlawful because she had been groomed, trafficked and sexually exploited by ISIS terrorists.<\/p>\n

But the public should not be \u201cexposed\u201d to terror threats \u201cbecause events and circumstances have conspired to give rise to that risk\u201d, the Home Office said.<\/p>\n

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Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said in written submissions: “The fact that someone is radicalised, and may have been manipulated, is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security risk.<\/p>\n

“Ms Begum contends that national security should not be a ‘trump’ card. But the public should not be exposed to risks to national security because events and circumstances have conspired to give rise to that risk.”<\/p>\n

Sir James also said the specialist commission “correctly recognised the difficulty at the heart of Ms Begum’s case”.<\/p>\n

He continued: “An individual could have been manipulated, radicalised, and have her travel to ISIL-controlled territory facilitated by someone else.<\/p>\n

“However, that would not touch the assessment that the individual also posed a real risk to national security, whether or not as a result of those same circumstances.”<\/p>\n

The barrister later said Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) was right to find there was “no direct connection between any potential failures, by other public authorities, in 2015” and Mr Javid’s decision to deprive Ms Begum of her citizenship.<\/p>\n

Ms Begum travelled to Syria in 2015 – at the age of 15 – before her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the now-24-year-old lost a challenge against the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).<\/p>\n

Giving the commission’s ruling in February, Mr Justice Jay said that while there was a “credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation”, this did not prevent then-home secretary Sajid Javid from removing her citizenship.<\/p>\n

Three senior judges were told the Home Office failed to consider the legal duties owed to Ms Begum as a potential victim of trafficking or as a result of “state failures” in her case.<\/p>\n