By James Simons And Eric King-
The Home Office was in error in declaring the baby of Shamina Begum a British citizen. Begum whose British citizenship was denounced by the Home Secretary for becoming an ISIS bride lost her baby in Syria, sparking cries of maltreatment.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would stop at nothing to resist the re-entry of Begum after it was revealed her involvement with terrorist organisations were exposed. However, he declared the unborn baby British before he was born when expressing plans to strip the teenager of her British Citizenship.
Under current laws, the UK courts have extra-territorial jurisdiction over a number of terrorism offences relevant to foreign fighters, including encouragement of terrorism. , which carries a maximum sentence extended from 7 to 15 years in the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act) Membership of a Proscribed Organisation carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Begum committed an offence when she went to Syria, and her case is currently with the High Court who is considering a challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision.
MISTAKEN
The decision to declare Begum’s kid as British was mistaken, because the citizenship of a child is based on the parents own citizenship, some lawyers have argued. The criteria for British citizenship is clear. A child attains British citizenship if the parent was British at the time of their birth.
Lawyers believe the same rationale that a child loosing their citizenship if the mother looses it before they are born should apply if the mother committed the offence that warranted they loss of citizenship before they were born. The underlying logic is to achieve uniformity in the purpose and application of the law.
The lawyers contend that it is necessary to consider whether Begum’s child was born after his mother was stripped if the mother’s crime or offence was one that would naturally result in her loosing their citizenship. Law is meant to be applied in the context and purpose of the spirit of the statute in order to achieve its overall objectives.
In this case of parent and child, both should share the same citizenship to guarantee their bond and entitlement to live together. Lawyers who are pondering the issue are refusing to go on record for it at the stage, after it was raised for an elaborate discussion.
POSITION
This position has been stated by two lawyers who insist on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. A plan is in place for a full comprehensive document to be created and sent to The Home Office for the purposes of analysis, and for record purposes and future application.The topic was discussed by the lawyers and a number of others on three separate occasions in an attempt to nail the situation. If the Home Secretary’s decision to strip Begum of her British citizenship is shown to be wrong, the analysis here automatically goes out of the window.
A lawyer, who described the issue as a sensitive topic said:
”If a child is born before the parent is stripped of British citizenship, the child inherits the right of British citizenship. However, if the parent is stripped before the child is born, the child should automatically loose the right to become a citizen of the Uk”.
Begum’s family was told her son would be British before he was born, even though she lost her citizenship before his birth. That now appears to have been a mistake, which we hope The Home Office will avoid in future.
Apart form being born in Britain, the only other way to become a citizen is through one’s parents. This signals the child’s inheritance of their parent’s rights and identity. By the same reasoning, lawyers believe this changes once that right is taken from a parent, because the link has been broken. The right to inherit a mother’s citizenship rests on the biological connection, which gives the right for the child to reside where the mother resides.
INHERITANCE
Once that changes, the child is believed to naturally loose this inheritance, for the same reason they and every other child benefits from their mother’s identity in order to leave with them. The decision to grant the baby British citizenship was made in isolation of the wider purpose for which the law allows children to inherit the citizenship of the mother or father.
The Home Office said they cannot comment on the analysis
Begum’s child died under awful circumstances, but the Home Secretary cannot be blamed for that. He was playing his role in keeping the country safe from a mother who had decide to go to bed with terrorists and approve their atrocious and evil acts. In fact the Home Secretary tried hard to be balanced by giving Begum’s unborn baby British citizenship. He was being too nice, but got it wrong.
The baby died of pneumonia, according to a medical certificate. He was less than three weeks old.A UK government spokesman at the time said said the death of any child was “tragic and deeply distressing for the family”. Ms Begum left the UK in 2015 with two friends and was found in a Syrian refugee camp in mid-February. She wanted to return to Britain but was stripped of her citizenship.
This article was contributed to by both authors