Ali Ahmed says teenager who fled to Syria to join Isis should be brought back to face justice

The father of Shamima Begum, a British-born teenager who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State, has urged the government not to revoke her UK citizenship.

“My child was only 15 years old when she fled [to Syria], she was immature,” Ahmed Ali said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I would ask the British government not to cancel her citizenship, to return her citizenship, and if she is guilty, bring her back to Britain and give her punishment there.”

Begum, now 19, said last month that she wanted to return home for the health of her then unborn child, but the home secretary, Sajid Javid, ordered her citizenship revoked.

Begum, who gave birth days after telling a journalist of her desire to return, has since said she wished she had kept a low profile. She and her son are said to have been moved to another camp nearer the Iraqi border.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shamima Begum reads a letter from the Home Office saying her British citizenship is being revoked. Photograph: ITV News

Her father, speaking from Sunamganj district, north-east Bangladesh, also accused the UK authorities of failing to properly deal with the issue of British teenagers who have left to join Isis.

“One girl went there a month ago, most likely a month ago,” he said. “The British government should have been alarmed about the matter, and they should have also inquired at the school to find out how she fled, since she was a student.

“Then a month later, three more students fled. The authorities should investigate at the school why these students fled. They were not adults.”

Ali also questioned how his daughter had been able to leave the UK with two school friends without her own passport.

“The British immigration system is very informed, the most informed system in the world. I always say ‘how did [my daughter] get there [Syria] using another one’s passport?’ She doesn’t even have her own passport. These matters should be investigated as well.”

Ali moved to the UK in 1975 and returned to his village in Bangladesh in 1990 to marry his first wife, Asma Begum. The couple, returned and had four daughters, with Shamima being the youngest. He later returned to Bangladesh and remarried.

Javid caused controversy when he ordered that Begum be stripped of her British citizenship last month, despite her having no other nationality. It is illegal for any country to make a citizen stateless under UN law.

The foreign ministry in Bangladesh later confirmed that Begum, who has never been to the country, would not be entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship.

Her Dutch husband, Yago Riedijk, 27, said this week that he wanted to return to the Netherlands with her and their newborn.

Speaking to the BBC, Riedijk, said he rejected Isis, who reportedly tortured him on suspicion of being a Dutch spy. Riedijk is being held in a Kurdish-run detention centre in northern Syria.

Begum married Riedijk after she arrived in Syria. They have since had three children, two of whom have died.

Their third child, born in February, could be entitled to Dutch nationality, but the Dutch authorities may not recognise Riedijk and Begum’s marriage because she was 15 at the time.

A spokesperson for the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service said it was unable not comment on individual cases, but added that to live in the Netherlands with a Dutch national, a spouse or partner would need a resident permit, which would require a valid passport or other travel document.