Bangladesh has nothing to do with Shamima, reiterates FM

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday reiterated that Bangladesh has nothing to do with Shamima Begum, a British woman who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State in Syria and got her British citizenship revoked.

"Shamima is neither a Bangladeshi citizen nor a dual citizen of the two countries. Her father was once a Bangladeshi and then took the British citizenship. But they never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh," he said while replying to a query from reporters at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city.

The government of the United Kingdom revoked the citizenship of Shamima Begum on account of her radicalisation in line with the ISIS outfit in Syria.

Recently, she lost the initial stage of her appeal against the Home Office's decision to revoke her UK citizenship.

A unanimous judgment by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) found against Shamima, now 20, on three preliminary grounds, including that she had not been improperly deprived of her citizenship.

The judgment prevents her from returning to London.

Referring to the relevant provision of the Bangladesh citizenship law, the foreign minister said if the parents are Bangladeshis, they can apply for citizenship of their children within seven years of the birth. "But her (Shamima's) parents neither applied for her citizenship, nor wanted it."   

He also said if the British government does not give her citizenship, she will be rendered stateless and the British government should look into it. "It's not our concern," he said.

In February 2015, Shamima, aged 15, left her home with two other teenagers, Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, then 15, and travelled to Syria to join ISIS.

She was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.

The then British home secretary, Sajid Javid, stripped her of her British citizenship later that month.