Shamima Begum from East London, one of three schoolgirls to have fled the British capital and their families to join Daesh fighters in Syria in 2015, has been told to forget ever coming back to the UK, with Home Secretary Priti Patel telling The Sun that there was “no way, no way” the girl could do this.
Patel remarked that it was “quite reassuring” to see Begum still living in a camp in war-torn Syria, insisting that “our job is to keep out country safe”.
“Our job is to keep our country safe. We don't need people who have done harm and left our country to be part of a death cult and to perpetuate that ideology”, the top official uttered resolutely, before continuing:
“We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country - and that includes this woman”.
Ms Begum’s citizenship was revoked earlier this year by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid when she resurfaced in a refugee camp heavily pregnant with a son, who died days later.
Begum herself, who is currently living in a new Syrian camp that is said to be loosely translated as Camp Sunshine, is believed to have served in Daesh's so-called “morality police”, where she stitched suicide bombers' vents as well as was tasked with recruiting other women to join the jihadist group, before the "caliphate's" fall.
The woman, who married Dutch-born Islamist Yago Riedijk shortly after leaving the UK, has several times begged the British authorities to let her into the country, citing her poor mental state after what she “had to go through”, and allow her to appear before a court there. However, Patel indicated the Brits “don’t want” her in their “court systems or prisons”.
Begum notably distanced herself from her earlier statements about Daesh, including her shocking confession: “When I saw my first severed head it didn't faze me at all”. According to her, she had to say those things as she feared that the other inmates in the camp where she was being held at the time would give her away or harm her.
After her British citizenship was revoked, authorities in Bangladesh, where it was believed she could be able to apply for citizenship, stated she would not be able to enter their country either, while her father is calling for her to face trial in Britain, despite previously backing her being stripped of citizenship.
*Daesh (also known as IS/ISIS/ISIL) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia
