Shamima Begum Loses Appeal over British Citizenship | BBC News

Feb 23, 2024 | Shamima Begum has lost her latest bid to overturn a decision by the UK government to strip her British citizenship.

The Court of Appeal ruling means she remains in Syria with no chance of return to the UK.

Begum left her home in London aged 15 in 2015 to travel to Syria to join Islamic State group. The now 24-year-old's lawyers brought a bid to overturn a 2023 decision at the Court of Appeal, with the Home Office opposing the challenge.

The Home Office argued the "key feature" of Begum's case was national security.

Behold the New ‘Hostile Environment’ – with the Power to Rob Millions of British Citizenship

THE GUARDIAN – OPINION: The government promised to learn from Windrush, but citizens trafficked to Syria by Islamic State have also been abandoned

‘Citizenship-stripping powers may feel abstract, but the government’s unprecedented use of them is already having a terrible impact on British families.’ Photograph: Uk Parliament/JESSICA TAYLOR HANDOUT/EPA
The government’s proposed new powers to strip people of their citizenship without notice rang alarm bells in communities across Britain. Despite being the first Muslim woman in our country’s history to serve in the cabinet, my family and I could be deprived of our citizenship without being told about it, and cast out of our home country if the Home Office believed this would be conducive to the public good. Two in five people from ethnic minority backgrounds could be at risk.

Successive British governments have torn down the basic belief that all British citizens in this country are and should be equal. The consequences of this government’s unprecedentedly broad use of citizenship-stripping powers have become even more clear to me after hearing directly from the families of British citizens detained in north-east Syria. » | Sayeeda Warsi | Tuesday, February 15, 2022

British Citizenship of Six Million People Could Be Threatened by Home Office Plans

Dec 7, 2021 • Exclusive: British citizenship of six million people could be jeopardised by the Home Office Nationality and Borders Bill. Two in five people in England and Wales from an ethnic minority background could become eligible to be deprived of their citizen status without warning.

New Statesman analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics also finds that two in every five people from non-white ethnic minorities (41 per cent) are likely to be eligible for deprivation of citizenship, compared with just one in 20 people categorised as white (5 per cent).

Despite expansions in this area in 2014, the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill could extend the governments powers to strip people of citizenship further still. Clause nine of the draft bill states that the government does not need to notify those deprived of their citizenship if it does not have their contact details, or if it is “for any other reason” not “reasonably practicable” to do so. It also states that notice should not be given if it is “in the public interest” not to do so.

Video features Ben van der Merwe, Chai Patel and Frances Webber.

Video edited by Phil Clarke Hill.

EU Citizens in the UK: Difficulty in Obtaining British Citizenship

Prof. Emmy van Deurzen tells the story her obtaining British citizenship after living and working in the UK for forty years. She had to battle against a confused system, but ultimately, with the help of her mp achieved her goal.

Inside Story: UK Bill: Passport to Statelessness?

Proposed law would give government more power to strip terror suspects of citizenship.

Immigrants Exploit Loophole to Gain British Citizenship in Church of England Marriages
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Illegal immigrants are exploiting a legal loophole to gain British citizenship by getting married in Church of England ceremonies.

Confidential guidelines have been issued by bishops to warn clergy of the scam, which has exploded since a Government crackdown on sham marriages was introduced in 2004.

Official figures show that the number of bogus weddings performed by Anglican priests has risen by as much as 400 per cent in some dioceses over the last four years.

Foreign nationals have turned to the Church because it is exempt from rules that require all foreign nationals from outside the European Union to obtain a Home Office certificate of approval to marry in a register office. Immigrants Exploit Loophole to Gain British Citizenship in Church of England Marriages >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | August 24, 2008

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