Isis bride Shamima Begum’s ongoing effort to return to the UK has stalled again after her lawyer was held back by Syrian forces.
Tasnime Akunjee travelled thousands of miles to the al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria to get Begum’s signature on paperwork necessary to begin the appeal process against the British government’s decision to strip her of UK citizenship.
“She can’t get legal advice and I have even been there and tried, but got detained for my efforts,” said Akunjee. “It cannot be that this is in any way just.”
Akunjee spent weeks obtaining the correct permissions to enter the camp. But after arriving and being questioned by a number of officials, he was told he would not be able to see her.
He said: “I knew which tent she was in, I got aerial photographs. Where I stood in the camp she was about two rows down- she was less than 50 metres from me. It was so frustrating.
“Intelligence officers at the camp have decided that no one is allowed in or out of the camp – nothing gets in and nothing gets out, apart from food.”
Akunjee arrived in Syria a day after Begum’s newborn son died in the refugee camp. Jarrah was buried, three weeks after his birth.
A Kurdish intelligence official said the infant had been taken to hospital in the camp with breathing difficulties several times in the past week.
The death raised fresh questions about conditions in north Syrian camps, and put protection obligations for some of the world’s most vulnerable children in the spotlight.
Begum, 19, has been told by the home secretary, Sajid Javid, that she will be stripped of her citizenship after fleeing the UK to join Isis, and reaffirming her commitment to the terrorist group after surrendering to Kurdish forces in eastern Syria.
Such a move would leave her stateless, and has been criticised by child welfare advocates, who have said that children of foreign nationals remain dangerously exposed to life-threatening conditions while in detention. Following news of the boy’s death, the Javid was widely criticised for his decision.
ProfileShamima Begum's journey into Isis
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February 2015
At the age of 15, Shamima Begum flees her home in Bethnal Green, east London. She travels with schoolfriends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana. The three intend to meet another friend, Sharmeena Begum – no relation of Shamima – who had travelled to Syria in late 2014.
CCTV footage shows the girls walking through Gatwick airport, where they boarded a flight to Turkey. There they are picked up by smugglers and taken across the border to an Isis base in northern Syria. Once there they move into a women’s house in Raqqa and apply to marry.
July 2015
The families of the girls say that two of them have married Isis fighters, without disclosing which. They say they are distraught at the news.
It later emerges that Begum had married 27-year-old Yago Riedijk, an Isis fighter from the Netherlands, 10 days after arriving in Raqqa. Soon afterwards she became pregnant with her first child, a daughter named Sarayah.
July 2016
Abase marries an 18-year-old Australian jihadist, Abdullah Elmir. He was later reported by intelligence agencies to have been killed by a coalition airstrike.
August 2016
Sultana’s family say that they believe she had been killed in an airstrike in Raqqa in May 2016.
January 2017
Begum and her family flee Raqqa as Isis retreats and head south-east to the town of Mayadin. She has another child, a son called Jerah. Later, the family moves again as Isis is pushed back.
June 2018
Begum sees her two surviving classmates, Sharmeena Begum and Abase, for the last time.
Late 2018
Jerah dies, aged eight months, of malnutrition and an unknown illness. Her daughter dies soon after, aged one year and nine months.
February 2019
Begum, who is heavily pregnant, gives an interview to the Times, in which she says that she should be allowed to return to the UK to raise her unborn third child. She gives birth a few days later. The Home Office tells her family that her citizenship will be revoked.
March 2019
Jarrah, Begum's new born son, dies in a Syrian refugee camp. The child was three weeks old.
Akunjee, who also lobbied Mohammed Hassan, deputy head of the Office of Foreign Relations, in his effort to see Begum, is now planning to appeal to the UK courts with Begum’s family to examine the legality of Javid’s decision to strip Shamima of her citizenship.
He said: “I made the case about why I needed to see her and the head of intelligence out there made some calls so I hung around for another day. But he said he had orders and no one could go in.
“We have got 28 days for her to sign this paperwork but no one can get to her. Now we will have to work with her family members to launch a legal challenge on her behalf.”
Separately, Akunjee revealed that he and his family had received death threats and Islamophobic hate mail since he revealed he was representing Begum and her family, as well as the bullied Syrian schoolboy Jamal.
The lawyer posted some of the hate mail online with one letter sent to him saying: “You will not be the first person we have killed.”
Akunjee said phone calls and threats were also made against his wife’s mother in Lithuania.
He said: “I always knew something like this was going to happen, in any society you get a percentage of people who are vile creatures.”
However, the solicitor said he would not be deterred, adding: “I don’t care what people are saying; doing the right thing for Jamal and Shamima is more important to me.”
Begum was 15 when she travelled with two other schoolgirls to join the terrorist group in February 2015. She married the Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27, soon after arriving in Syria. All three of their children are now confirmed to have died.
The heavily pregnant Begum spoke last month of her desire to return to the UK as the self-styled caliphate collapsed.
