David Bergman

Bangladesh doesn’t want Shamima Begum. Here’s why it might have to take her

Whatever the arguments over the Government’s decision to revoke Isis bride Shamima Begum’s British citizenship, the teenager’s future now depends on one thing: will the courts determine she is a dual national who is eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship? If so, Sajid Javid’s decision is lawful, as this means that the loss of her British citizenship will not leave her stateless. But what does Bangladesh make of this row?

The view from Dhaka has been clear: we don’t want her. In a statement issued this week, the country’s foreign ministry said:

“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that she has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship shared with Bangladesh alongside her birthplace, the United Kingdom. Bangladesh asserts that Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen. She is a British citizen by birth and has never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh’s state foreign minister Shahriar Alam was unequivocal: 

“There is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh.”

This reaction is understandable. Bangladesh has its own jihadi problem to deal with. Like Britain, it has been victim to multiple attacks; in one incident in July 2016, Islamist terrorists killed 20 people at an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi government is right not to want to facilitate the entry of any additional sympathisers, particularly those who have never even lived in the country.

Yet the situation is not this straightforward. This is because the Bangladesh foreign ministry statements are not only inconsistent with the country’s law but also contradict a formal diplomatic written opinion it gave the British government privately less than a year ago.

First to the law. There are no Bangladeshi court decisions dealing with the question of whether someone in Shamima’s position is Bangladeshi or not, but there have been two recent decisions of the UK’s Special Immigration Appeal Commission which dealt with three Bangladeshis, two of whom (referred to as G3 and E3) were in almost identical legal positions to Begum.

Both cases – one decided in December 2017, the other in November 2018 – found that Bangladesh law was clear; according to section 5 and 14 of Bangladesh’s Citizenship Act 1951, people born in the UK to parents with Bangladeshi citizenship would, at the time of their birth, be Bangladeshi citizens and would at least remain so until the age of 21. Both these decisions appear to contradict the Bangladesh government position on Begum.

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