Could Shamima Begum return to UK under Labour? Independent review says she should be saved from ‘Britain’s Guantanamo’ camp in Syria

Shamima Begum should be allowed back into the UK, a review of Britain’s counter-terrorism policy has found.

The ISIS bride and other Britons held in Syrian camps ought to be repatriated, according to the Independent Commission on UK Counterterrorism.

Begum is currently living in a detention camp in Syria after she fled her home in east London at the age of 15 to join Islamic State in 2015. 

The independent commission has now described the current policy of leaving her and others in detention camps in northeastern Syria was ‘unsustainable’. 

They said the camps risked being seen as ‘Britain’s Guantanamo’ – a reference to the US detention facility Guantanamo Bay, which was used to indefinitely hold al-Qaeda suspects in the years following the 9/11 atrocities in 2021. 

The controversial comparison is meant to reflect that Begum is being held in detention without charge or trial. The commission added that conditions in Syrian camps such as Al Hol and Al Roj amounted to ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’.

Members of the body include former Tory Attorney General Dominic Grieve, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Sir Peter Fahy, former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police).

Estimates have suggested there could be between 50 and 70 British citizens held in Syrian camps – the majority of them women and also comprising 12 to 30 children. 

Begum had her UK citizenship revoked after joining ISIS but has been pursuing legal campaigns to get it back and return to Britain. 

Begum had her UK citizenship revoked after joining ISIS but has been pursuing legal campaigns to get it back and return to Britain

The new report by the counter-terrorism commission has said that letting UK-linked people remain in such facilities in Syria was ‘inconsistent’ with human rights obligations.

It stated: ‘The government should facilitate the voluntary repatriation for British nationals, including those deprived of British nationality.

‘It should appoint a special envoy to oversee repatriation and inform returnees of the likelihood of prosecution.

‘As escapes from camps are likely to lead to some returns to the UK, an organised programme of return, rehabilitation and integration is the best long-term option for managing risk.’

The Daily Mail revealed in September how she was living on £100 a week in donations from friends and family while stuck in a detention camp in the Syrian desert as she continues to hope for a return to the UK.

Stateless Begum, 26, was seen for the first time in years that month when she stormed out of an interview at the grim al-Roj camp. 

But the former schoolgirl Jihadi was said to be trying to keep her morale up by enjoying small luxuries such rudimentary beauty treatments paid for by donations from supporters – while battling with the UK government to get her citizenship back.

Begum, now 26, was born and raised in Bethnal Green, east London, before travelling to Syria to join ISIS in 2015.

ISIS bride Shamima Begum is seen here while imprisoned at the Al-Roj camp in Syria

She later became a child bride to Dutch Islamic convert Yago Riedijk, with whom she had three children who all died as infants.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of British citizenship in 2019 – a decision later upheld by the UK’s Supreme Court.

Begum’s lawyers and supporters have argued that she was trafficked to Syria given the fact that she was a minor when it happened and should be allowed to return to the UK.

She was accompanied by two other schoolgirls, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, with Sultana believed killed in an explosion and the fate of Abase remaining unknown.

The Court of Appeal threw out Begum’s challenge over the removal of her British citizenship last year – although her lawyers have vowed to ‘keep fighting’.

Gareth Peirce claimed her ‘indefinite arbitrary detention’ ran contrary to international law.

‘She and others, other women and children, are in what is not a refugee camp but a prison camp, and that is conceded by the United Kingdom, which has stated to the UN that it agrees that Geneva Convention articles apply,’ she said.

‘Unlawful as that is, there is no exit. There is no way that she can escape from unlawful imprisonment.’

Ms Peirce later said that conditions in the al-Hol camp where Ms Begum remains had worsened – while the Red Cross described the camp as ‘grim’ and ‘extremely volatile’.

But Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, argued Begum was a threat to national security.

He told judges: ‘The fact that someone is radicalised, and may have been manipulated, is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security risk.’