Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said Shamima Begum, a British woman who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join militant outfit Islamic State in Syria and got her British citizenship revoked, has no relation with Bangladesh.
The minister also reiterated that the government will not allow her she will not be allowed to enter Bangladesh.
“If Shamima wants to come to Bangladesh, we’ll in no way allow her. Bangladesh won’t accept such a militant. We’ve no relation with her,” he said while distributing scholarships of Moazzem Fatema Trust in the city on Saturday.
In February 2015, Shamima, then aged 15, left her home with two other teenagers, Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, then 15, and travelled to Syria to join ISIS.
She was found nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
The government of the United Kingdom revoked her citizenship on account of her radicalisation in line with the ISIS outfit in Syria.
Recently, Shamima lost the initial stage of her appeal against the Home Office’s decision to revoke her UK citizenship.
A unanimous judgment by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) found against Shamima, now 20, on three preliminary grounds, including that she had not been improperly deprived of her citizenship. The judgment prevents her from returning to London.
On February 20 last year, Bangladesh confirmed that Shamima is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is no question to allow her to enter Bangladesh.
About Bangladeshi citizens stuck in China in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the foreign minister said the 171 Bangladeshi students will be brought back home gradually.
He also said the government is thinking about shifting homeless people to Bhasan Char in Noakhali where massive development work is being unleashed. “Without sending Rohingyas there, an alternative should be considered as the environment is fine there,” he added.
