‘Missed opportunities’ to stop Shamima Begum joining Isis should have been investigated, court told

Lawyers argue deprivation of British citizenship in 2019 was unlawful

Shamima Begum was able to travel to Syria with two schoolfriends aged 15 (PA)

“Missed opportunities” to stop Shamima Begum from joining Isis in Syria should have been investigated before her British nationality was removed, a court has heard.

Lawyers for the 23-year-old, who left the UK aged 15 with two school friends, are arguing that former home secretary Sajid Javid made the decision unlawfully in 2019.

Samantha Knights KC told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission: “We say there were missed opportunities in the school that had failed to properly protect Ms Begum, and the police, and the secretary of state making a decision to deprive her nationality must take those failures into account.”

Ms Begum travelled to Syria with two other girls from Bethnal Green Academy in February 2015, just months after another teenage girl from the school made the same journey.

Written submissions to the court by Ms Begum’s legal team said that Ms Begum and her friends were spoken to by police because of their link to a student called Sharmeena Begum, who was not a relation.

Legal representatives for the Begum family have previously said they were not told she had been interviewed by police.

Officers gave a letter warning of Sharmeena’s departure to the three girls and other Bethnal Green Academy pupils, but they did not pass it on to their parents.

In written arguments, Ms Begum’s legal team said the fact she was still able to leave for Syria “should have led to serious questions being asked at the highest levels as to how that had been allowed to occur”.

They said there were a “series of obvious questions” over potential failings by the Metropolitan Police, the local council, the school, the Home Office and the security services, but the result of any internal investigations was not given to Mr Javid when he was making the decision on Ms Begum’s citizenship.

A national security assessment found that Ms Begum had left the UK voluntarily and “aligned herself” with Isis, but her lawyers argue that there should have been an investigation into whether she was trafficked to Syria by the terrorist group to be sexually exploited.

Ms Knights said she was married to an adult fighter “within weeks” of her arrival and had three children who died in infancy.

The barrister told Tuesday’s hearing that children cannot legally consent to marriage and that the state was “required to investigate” whether she was a victim of trafficking before removing her citizenship.

She argued that Mr Javid should have considered whether Ms Begum’s actions were a “consequence of the trafficking”.

“We’re not saying you can never prosecute a victim of trafficking, or that you can never deprive a victim of trafficking of their British citizenship,” Ms Knights said.

“We are saying you must consider [human rights] obligations, you must investigate, you must identify the nexus between trafficking and the conduct.”

Home Office representatives have cited media interviews given by Ms Begum after she was discovered in the al-Hol detention camp in February 2019 as evidence that she supported Isis and showed no remorse for her actions.

But her lawyers suggested that she may have been in danger from others in the camp, and affected by traumatic experiences and the recent birth of her third child – who died weeks later.

An MI5 officer, known only as witness E, previously told the hearing that the service “recognises that victims can very much be a threat, if indeed someone is a victim of trafficking”.

When asked whether MI5 had sought any expert advice before reaching its conclusion that Ms Begum had travelled to Syria voluntarily, Witness E said: “In my mind, it is not conceivable that an intelligent and articulate 15-year-old could not know what Isis was doing, so in some respects yes, I do believe she would have known what she was doing and had agency in doing so.”

Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said in written submissions that the security services “continue to assess that Ms Begum poses a risk to national security”.

“This is a case about national security,” he said, later adding: “This is not a case about trafficking.”

Ms Begum is also challenging the removal of her British citizenship on the grounds that it made her “de facto stateless” and that the decision was predetermined.

The hearing, before Mr Justice Jay, is due to finish on Friday and a ruling will be given at a later date.