Shamima Begum's lawyer has been unable to get the Isis bride's permission to launch an appeal for British citizenship after he was blocked from entering the camp she is in by Syrian forces.

Tasnime Akunjee was stopped just "50 metres" from Begum after travelling thousands of miles to the al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria. He was there to get her signature on paperwork necessary to start the process to appeal against the government's decision to remove her UK citizenship.

He said it now means that her family will need to launch a legal challenge on 19-year-old Begum's behalf.

The lawyer told the Guardian: “She can’t get legal advice and I have even been there and tried, but got detained for my efforts. It cannot be that this is in any way just.

“I knew which tent she was in, I got aerial photographs. Where I stood in the camp she was about two rows down- she was less than 50 metres from me. It was so frustrating.

“Intelligence officers at the camp have decided that no one is allowed in or out of the camp – nothing gets in and nothing gets out, apart from food.”