Three Brit-Bangladeshis 'who joined ISIS in Syria' WIN appeal against losing UK citizenship

THREE British-Bangladeshis said to have travelled to Syria to join ISIS have won an appeal against the removal of their British citizenship.

Two women and a man won their case despite their "alignment" with the terror group, meaning they can keep their British passport.

Known only as C3 and C4, the two women had their British citizenship removed in November 2019 on the grounds of national security.

C7, a man born in Bangladesh who became a British citizen at birth, also had his British citizenship revoked in March 2020 on the basis that he had "aligned" with IS and was a threat to UK national security.

But a tribunal ruled that the move left them stateless, therefore Home Secretary Priti Patel's removal of their citizenship was wrong.

All three appealed against the removal of their British citizenship at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) – a specialist tribunal that hears challenges to decisions to remove someone's British citizenship on national security grounds.

The Home Office argued that all three were dual British-Bangladeshi nationals at the time their British citizenship was removed, and so the decision did not render them stateless.

But their lawyers said all three lost their Bangladeshi citizenship when they turned 21, meaning the decision did leave them stateless and was therefore unlawful.

In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: "C3, C4 and C7 have persuaded us that, on the dates when the decisions and the orders in their cases were made, they were not nationals of Bangladesh or any other state apart from the UK.

JI-HEADING HOME?

"This means that orders depriving them of their British citizenship would make them stateless."

The judge added: "The Secretary of State had no power to make orders with that effect.

"For that reason – and that reason alone – the appeals against the decisions to make those orders succeed."

This comes after the Supreme Court ruled last month that ISIS bride Shemima Begum cannot return to the UK to pursue an appeal against the removal of her British citizenship. 

Begum said she wanted to kill herself when her three kids died in Syria- as she begs Brits to give her a "second chance".

The teen ISIS bride fled Britain for Syria to join the militant group in 2015.

A new documentary, shot in 2019, follows Begum living at the Roj camp in Syria after the fall of the terror group's caliphate.

Begum revealed that she longs for a "foot-long meatball Subway" if she ever returns to the UK.  

The 21-year-old, who was 15 when she travelled with two other east London schoolgirls, accused the British government of "making up" stories that she worked for the ISIS morality police as an excuse to keep her out of the country.

Begum also pleaded with people in the UK to keep an "open mind" about her as she fights to return.

She said: "'I would say to the people in the UK to give me a second chance because I was still young when I left.

"I would ask that they put aside everything they've heard about me and just have an open mind about why I left and who I am now as a person."

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