Update on Shamima Begum: Bring Me Home
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2021
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Supreme Court has ruled that Shamima Begum will not be allowed to return to the UK to fight her citizenship case. Begum, who was a teenager when she left Britain to join ISIS, has been fighting a legal battle to return home from the camp in northern Syria where she's currently detained. Today we revisit the first in our five part mini-series providing background on the case. To listen to the rest of the series search 'Bring Me Home' on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
It was a chance meeting in a Syrian camp. A veteran war reporter, a young mother, and an interview that polarised a nation. Shamima Begum was just 15 years old when she and two of her school friends from Bethnal Green left Britain to join Islamic State. Five years later, with her fate still hanging in the balance, the Supreme Court will this week decide whether she can return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her citizenship. This episode of the Stories of our Times podcast will form part of a week-long series. We'll explore: what should happen to British nationals who left to join Islamic State, and do we have a responsibility to bring them back?
The rest of the Bring Me Home series:
Episode 2, Life in the Camps
Episode 3, Deradicalising Shamima Begum
Episode 4, Lessons from Europe
Episode 5, A legal battle over Shamima Begum's future
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Guest: Anthony Loyd, Foreign Correspondent, The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Manvine here. |
| 0:07.3 | Back in November, we did a five-part series about Shamima Begum, a schoolgirl from Bethnal |
| 0:12.9 | Green who went to join the Caliphate, and now there's been an update. |
| 0:19.1 | The Supreme Court has ruled that Shamima Begum, who left London and traveled to Syria when |
| 0:23.3 | she was 15 to join the Islamic State Group, should not be allowed to return to the UK to |
| 0:28.0 | challenge the removal of a British citizenship. |
| 0:30.4 | In a judgment handed down this morning, it sent the safety of the public, trumps her right, |
| 0:35.8 | to a fair hearing. |
| 0:37.1 | Human rights campaigners say that ruling is a cynical ploy to make Miss Begum someone else's |
| 0:41.7 | responsibility. Her children are dead sadly, but there's a plenty of other children in those |
| 0:46.2 | camps. It is an international mess, really, isn't it? |
| 0:50.0 | This is an extra episode to bring you the latest on a monumental judgment from the Supreme Court, |
| 0:56.4 | and what it means for Shamima Begum and others like her, and for justice and security in Britain. |
| 1:03.0 | The Court of Appeal initially ruled she should be allowed to return to fight her appeal, |
| 1:08.2 | but Princeton told the Supreme Court, Lord Reed, that this was a flawed judgment. |
| 1:13.4 | It did not give the Home Secretary's assessment the respect which it should have received, |
| 1:19.4 | given that it is a Home Secretary who has been charged by Parliament with responsibility for |
| 1:25.3 | making such assessments and who is democratically accountable to Parliament for the discharge |
| 1:31.6 | of that responsibility. |
| 1:33.4 | Antony Lloyd, foreign correspondent for the Times, was the first journalist to find Shamima Begum. |
| 1:39.6 | Two years ago, he found her heavily pregnant, detained in a Kurdish camp. |
| 1:45.8 | Antony's interview with Shamima created a storm, unleashing a whirlwind of headlines, |
... |
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