The Catch-up: Britain ‘won’t rescue’ pregnant Isis schoolgirl

What happened?

The schoolgirl who fled the UK to join Isis in Syria will not be rescued by Britain, officials have confirmed. Shamima Begum, who is heavily pregnant, left London when she was 15 to join the terrorist organisation. Today, it emerged she is in a refugee camp in Syria and wants to return to the UK.

What’s going to happen to her?

Now heavily pregnant, Ms Begum told a journalist for The Times she will ‘do anything’ to return to the UK and have her baby. She revealed she had two children with her Isis husband, but both are both dead. Despite her desire to return home, Ms Begum insists she has ‘no regrets’ about becoming an Isis bride aged 15. She also revealed gruesome details about life in the caliphate, including seeing the decapitated heads of captives in bins.

Security minister Ben Wallace said he would not put British lives at risk to ‘go and look for terrorists or former terrorists’. Ms Begum is a British citizen and has the right to live in Britain. If she makes it back to the country she will face a criminal investigation, which will look at whether she has committed any crimes and whether she poses a security threat. The fact that she was a child when she left for Syria complicates the situation legally and it is not entirely clear what position she would be left in.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said at the time of her disappearance that she would be treated as a victim so long as she had not committed any further offences while in Syria. Joana Cook, a senior research fellow at KCL, said her team considers Ms Begum to be a potential security threat.

Read more about this story

Father of Isis bride says the girls are ‘no threat’ to Britain (The Telegraph)
How the drama of the British schoolgirls fleeing to Syria unfolded (HuffPost)
What would happen if Shamima Begum returns to UK? (Sky News)
More British women who joined Islamic State identified at Syria camps (Sky News)

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