Shamima Begum is “not a dangerous person” and should be allowed to return to the UK, an ex-US diplomat who has met her claims.
Peter Galbraith told The Telegraph on Tuesday he had spoken to her in the camp in Syria where she is living in hope of returning to Britain, and said she had fully cut ties with ISIS.
The former Bethnal Green schoolgirl shocked Britain when she and two friends slipped out of the country to join the terror group in Syria at age 15.
Her plea to come back to the UK following the fall of ISIS in the region has divided Britain.
Now aged 21, Begum has vowed she has abandoned the group after she was tracked down to a camp holding foreign former ISIS families being guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
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(Image: BBC supplied by Pixel8000)
She is challenging the UK’s decision to strip her of her citizenship, after the Government argued she should not return as she posed a national security risk.
Begum has the right to appeal against the Home Office’s decision to revoke her UK citizenship, which has rendered her stateless and living in limbo in the camp.
Her request to rejoin the UK has prompted widespread debate about how to handle returning jihadists.
Recent pictures showed she has ditched her traditional Islamic dress for Western clothes.
(Image: PA)
The black burqa she was pictured wearing previously has been banned in the camp as part of attempts to de-radicalise women and children.
Mr Galbraith claimed she is worthy of repatriation, added: “I’ve talked to Shamima. She is part of the group of women who have absolutely rejected the Islamic State.
“I know enough about her to feel quite confident that she’s not a dangerous person.”
He added: “The basic position of the British government is that Shamima is somehow dangerous, and I just don’t think that’s true.”
Mr Galbraith made the comments following reports that he had secured the release of a Canadian mother from the camp.
He had previously helped return a German woman, three German children and an American orphan who were also being held in Roj camp to their home countries.
According to reports, he has been helping former ISIS families in limbo in the camps by using his contacts with Kurdish officials, cultivated during his time as a diplomat in the 1980s.
As many as 20 British women and their children are believed to be living at the camp.
Begum herself had become known as the so-called “ISIS bride” after she moved to the Islamic State to wed a Dutch fighter.
All three of her children have died, including the infant she was seen cradling at al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria when The Times first tracked her down in 2019.
