Plea to restore Shamima Begum’s British citizenship in wake of baby’s death

A lawyer for Islamic State child bride Shamima Begum has called on the Home Office to reinstate her British citizenship as “an act of mercy”.

Sky News reported that Tasnime Akunjee had called on officials to reverse their decision to strip her of a UK passport following the death of her infant son in a refugee camp.

The 19-year-old, who fled the UK for Syria four years ago, gave interviews from a refugee camp saying she wished to return to the UK for the baby’s safety after her two older children died.

But as a debate raged over how she should be treated, Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her citizenship, and on Friday her three-week old son Jarrah died from pneumonia.

Sky News reported that the letter to the Home Office said: “We write specifically on behalf of Mrs Begum, Shamima Begum’s mother to ask you to reconsider your previous decision dated 19 February 2019 to deprive her daughter Begum of her British citizenship…

“Ms Begum requests this reconsideration, as an act of mercy, on the basis of the following new information, namely the death of her newborn son.”

It goes on: “It is extremely unlikely that Shamima will be in a fit state to make any rational decisions.”

In the wake of the baby’s death Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted officials are working on how to rescue British children born to Islamic State runaways.

The Foreign Secretary’s defence came after it was reported that two further women married into the terror group have been stripped of their UK citizenship while being held in detention camps with their children.

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