Lawyer: Ex-Islamic State bride was child trafficking victim

LONDON (AP) — Lawyers for a British woman whose U.K. citizenship was removed after she travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group have argued that she should have been treated as a child trafficking victim. Shamima Begum, now 23, was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls from London joined the extremist group in February 2015. Authorities revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds soon after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019. Begum’s lawyers launched a fresh legal challenge against the British government’s decision. Lawyer Samantha Knights told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission on Monday that Begum was recruited by the Islamic State group and transported to Syria for sexual exploitation.