The 25-year-old has lived in Syria’s Roj camp for the past five years since UK courts refused her legal petitions on national security grounds.
Shamima Begum, a London-born child who joined the then-ISIS, has legal goals after potential political changes in Syrian.
Begum’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said, according to the Telegraph, that the destabilisation of Syria could help her come back to Britain.
The 25-year-old has spent five years living at Roj refugee camp. He argues that geopolitical turmoil might help him.
The current situation, Akunque told reporters, justifies proportionality.
The legal repercussions of closing the camp could push Begum into the dangerous Syrian desert, where her risks could be greater than her threat to national security.
The complaint relates to Begum’s controversial 2015 trip to Syria when she was just fifteen. Her journey from Tower Hamlets, East London, to Syria through Türkiye has sparked outrage.
She married a Daesh fighter and had three children who died young, after travelling with two fellow schoolgirls from London.
In 2019, after Daesh’s defeat, former Home Secretary revoked Begum’s British citizenship Sajid Javid, who claimed that she had inspired and shown links to terrorist activity and that this represented a threat to national security. She left stateless despite claims of Bangladeshi citizenship.
Human rights groups are starting to speak out. Dan Dolan, a policy adviser at Reprieve, called for the immediate repatriation of British nationals detained in Syria.
“This is a very dangerous situation for lives,” he said. “The majority of Britons in these outdoor prisons are under the age of 10, many children are being trafficked.”
There are around 70 British nationals in prisons controlled by Kurdish forces, including ten to fifteen adults, twenty females including Begum and forty minors.
The possible closure of SDF camps compounds Begum’s plight. The fate of these prisons could change due to regional instability and American involvement.
Begum challenged the refusal of her citizenship in 2019, but the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal in 2021. In March, it rejected the request for reconsideration.
Amnesty International describes the Roj and al-Hol camps as inhumane conditions. The organisation said women faced torture, enforced disappearance, and separation from their children.