Does Shamima Begum have dual citizenship?

On whether the Home Office’s conduct is legal, legal experts with expertise in both the British and Bangladeshi legal systems have differing opinions.

The children of Bangladeshi parents who were born in the UK automatically acquire dual citizenship at birth, but this privilege expires at the age of 21, according to Fahad Ansari, an attorney who represented two individuals in the same situation.

Because the two males, in that case, were above 21, which would not apply to Begum, who was 19 years old, the government only lost one case.

Does Shamima Begum have dual citizenship?

Sajid Javid, the UK Home Secretary, declared in 2019 that he had issued an order stripping Begum of her British citizenship. According to international law, the UK government was not allowed to strip her of her British citizenship if doing so would render her a stateless person.

The UK government argued that Begum was not rendered stateless by the ruling since she was a dual citizen who also had citizenship in Bangladesh. Begum does not now hold Bangladeshi citizenship, according to the Bangladeshi government, and she will not be permitted to visit Bangladesh if she does not.

Begum has the legal right to contest the Home Office’s decision to remove her British citizenship. Begum’s immediate family members disagreed with Javid’s decision, but her brother-in-law Muhammad Rahman asked the people to back the government’s choice.

“The British people should support it,” he added, “The information they have is to the best of their ability and the British people should support it,” Begum mentioned that she might think about requesting Dutch citizenship.