Dame Priti Patel has slammed the UN for claiming Jihadi bride Shamima Begum is a “possible victim of trafficking”.
The Court of Appeal on Friday rejected an appeal by the ISIS fanatic to have her British citizenship restored.
But UN special rapporteurs claimed that Begum was a “possible victim of trafficking” and remains “vulnerable” without her British citizenship.
And Dame Priti, the former Home Secretary, said the UN is “wrong on this”, and slammed their intervention.
She said: “It’s absolutely clear, the UN are wrong on this, basically.
“The UN should not be getting involved in what is a very domestic case of the United Kingdom.
“Every Home Secretary, my predecessors, and those I guess that have followed me since have been very clear on this.
“That case is closed as far as we’re concerned, and the evidence against it is so substantial.”
Ms Begum’s lawyers have relied on claims she had been groomed, trafficked and sexually exploited by ISIS terrorists to have her citizenship restored.
The UN said in a statement: “There is a credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is an international crime, a form of modern slavery.
“Protections owed to victims of trafficking and those at risk of trafficking, especially children, must be respected to be meaningful.”
The Home Office has argued the public should not be “exposed” to terror threats “because events and circumstances have conspired to give rise to that risk”.
Ms Begum travelled to Syria in 2015 – at the age of 15 – before her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
In February last year, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Mr Justice Jay said that while there was a “credible suspicion that Ms Begum was recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation”, this did not prevent then-home secretary Sajid Javid from removing her citizenship.
