Isis Briton Shamima Begum pleads to return to UK after giving birth

A teenager who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State has called on people in the UK to have sympathy for her, the day after giving birth to a boy in a refugee camp.

Shamima Begum, 19, who left the UK with two school friends in 2015, spoke to the Times while heavily pregnant earlier this week from the al-Hawl refugee camp in north-eastern Syria. She said she was desperate to come back to the UK.

Her family’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said Begum had given birth on Saturday and that, though they had not had direct contact with her, they understood that both she and the baby were in good health.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday while sitting with her newborn, she said: “I feel a lot of people should have sympathy for me, for everything I’ve been through. You know, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I left.

“I was hoping that maybe for the sake of me and my child they let me come back. Because I can’t live in this camp forever. It’s not really possible.”

Akunjee said news of the birth had changed the dynamics of the situation and increased pressure on the government to let Begum, and now her child, back.

“We are now dealing with an innocent baby who we would like to get out of the camp and back to the UK,” he said.

“We would like every effort made by the British government to get the baby back despite the words of the home secretary, which have been shown to be wrong by the justice secretary and the head of MI6 and experts in international law.”

Asked to respond to concerns that she could be potentially dangerous if she returned, Begum said: “They don’t have any evidence against me doing anything dangerous. When I went to Syria I was just a housewife, the entire four years I stayed at home, took care of my husband, took care of my kids. I never did anything. I never made propaganda, I never encouraged people to come to Syria.”

Begum said she had not met any British consulate officials, only journalists. Asked what she thought life may be like for her back in the UK, she said: “I don’t know, because I know there would be a lot of restrictions on me … I don’t know if they will take my child away.”

Begum married Yago Riedijk, 27, a Dutch convert to Islam, 10 days after arriving in the city of Raqqa in 2015. She had two children, both of whom died. She told the Times she wanted to return home to protect the health of her new baby.

It emerged on Sunday that Begum has named the child Jarah after one of the two children she has lost since November 2018.

Begum’s family have called on the British government to allow her to return to the UK so her child can be cared for in “peace and security”. But the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said he would not hesitate to block her return.

“My message is clear: if you have supported terrorist organisations abroad I will not hesitate to prevent your return,” he said. “If you do manage to return you should be ready to be questioned, investigated and potentially prosecuted.”

Writing in the Sunday Times, Javid said: “As a father I feel compassion for anyone born or brought into a conflict zone. But in considering what actions need to be taken now, I have to think about the safety and security of children living in our country.”

In a statement issued on Friday, the family said her apparent lack of regret for joining Isis should be seen as the “words of a girl who was groomed at the age of 15”.

“Now we are faced with the situation of knowing that Shamima’s young children have died – children we will never come to know as a family. This is the hardest of news to bear,” the statement read.

“The welfare of Shamima’s unborn child is of paramount concern to our family, and we will do everything within our power to protect that baby who is entirely blameless in these events.”

Helen Clark, a former head of the United Nations Development Programme and prime minister of New Zealand, said Begum had been groomed and had the right to return to the UK.

“She is a UK citizen, she’s born there. The head of MI6 says she has a right to return,” she told Newstalk ZB in New Zealand on Monday. “It’s always possible that people can turn their lives around. We’ve seen that before.”

“I’m appalled by the ‘no regret’ attitude she showed,” she added. “But nonetheless she is a citizen, and in the end we do have obligations to citizens.”

Speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, the culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, said the nationality of Begum’s child was “not straightforward”. He said there were concerns about her health and the health of her baby, but that, if she did return to the UK she would have to “answer for her actions”.

“British citizens who only have British citizenship are entitled to come back to the UK. That’s a matter of international law. But as a matter of international law too, and domestic law potentially, people also have to take responsibility for their actions, and she will be no exception to that.”

Shamima Begum, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase followed their school friend Sharmeena Begum in travelling to Syria to join Isis in the half-term break of February 2015.

The three pupils at Bethnal Green academy, aged between 15 and 16 at the time, took a Turkish Airlines flight from Gatwick to Istanbul before crossing into Syria – the same route taken by Begum three months earlier.

All four ended up in Raqqa, where they were married off to jihadists who had come to Syria from around the world. Speaking to the Times, Shamima Begum confirmed that Sultana had been killed, aged 17, in an airstrike in May 2016.

Shamina Begum said she heard two weeks ago that Amira Abase and Sharmeena Begum were still alive. They had decided to stay on in Baghuz, Isis’s last stronghold, where she last saw them in June.