Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, has vowed to "follow up" on claims that a person who was allegedly a Canadian intelligence operative brought British schoolgirls into Syria. Trudeau's remarks came after a BBC article on Wednesday that described the actions of a man who is accused of smuggling multiple people to ISIS and giving Canadian intelligence access to their personal data.
The BBC got a "dossier" on the individual they identified as "an intelligence agent for Canada" after speaking with an anonymous senior intelligence officer from an undefined country that is fighting ISIS. According to the BBC, the dossier comprised information from law enforcement and intelligence.
The BBC also met with Shamima Begum, a British schoolgirl who, at the age of 15, traveled to Syria to join ISIS in 2015.
According to the BBC, who reported that the conversation was a part of a future podcast, Begum stated that the man "arranged the entire voyage from Turkey to Syria."Along with two East London friends who were 15 and 16 years old at the time, Begum traveled to northern Syria. The BBC states,the suspected intelligence operative claimed to have "provided Ms Begum's passport details with Canada," according to papers they have seen.
When asked about the reporting on Wednesday during a press conference in Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded: "Obviously we know we live in a particularly dangerous world, and the fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and creative in their approaches.But they are constrained at every turn by rigid regulations, by the values and concepts that are dear to Canadians, especially those centered on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we expect that those regulations be adhered to," he said.
Both the UK's Met Police and Canada's Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) declined to comment, stating that they "do not comment on subjects connected to intelligence."On February 19, 2019, Begum's British citizenship was revoked by Sajid Javid, the then-British Home Secretary, shortly after a Times of London reporter found her in a camp for Syrian refugees.The Home Office then declared in a statement that it would not comment on specific instances. However, a spokeswoman clarified that the Home Secretary may strip someone of their British citizenship "where it would not render the individual stateless." It's unknown if Begum holds dual citizenship.
"In November, Shamima Begum will have a hearing in the SIAC [Special Immigration Appeals Commission] court," the family's attorney Tasnime Akunjee informed CNN in a written statement on Wednesday. "One of the main arguments will be that when former Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Shamima Begum of her citizenship leaving her in Syria, he did not consider that she was a victim of trafficking." It will undoubtedly affect the hearing in November, Akunjee added, if the BBC has evidence of a trafficking network and Shamima Begum being a victim of that network. If by all directed forms of investigations and it's proven to be true then will there be a thorough cleanup more or like sanitizing of not only the parties in question but still other sectors of governance within and beyond the state.
References
https://www.amaliah.com/post/65733/child-trafficking-of-shamima-begum