Shamima Begum, who left the U.K. when she was 15 to join ISIS and has tried to return to Britain on claims she was trafficked, has been denied re-entry once again. The 23-year-old’s appeal of an earlier court decision to deny her re-entry has now been fully dismissed. Begum traveled from the U.K. to Syria in 2015, where she married an ISIS terrorist with whom she had three children who all died from illnesses. She was stripped of her U.K. citizenship in 2019, but in recent years, Begum has fought to return. “I tell you from the bottom of my heart that I regret every, every decision I’ve made,” she told Good Morning Britain in 2021. “I would rather die than go back to ISIS.” Begum’s lawyers argued in an appeal hearing last November that she was a victim of child trafficking, having been just 15 when she fled to Syria. While the judge conceded “the motive for bringing her to Syria was sexual exploitation to which, as a child, she could not give a valid consent,” he ultimately ruled against overturning then-Home Secretary Sayid Javid’s decision to revoke her citizenship. Begum’s legal team said their case is “nowhere near over” and they will challenge this decision, as well.
