Calls are mounting for an investigation of Mayor John Biggs and his administration with regard to Shamima Begum. What went wrong, and how can we fix things?

By refusing to carry out a Serious Case Review, it appears Tower Hamlets Council suppressed the facts around Shamima, allowing the Home Secretary to strip her of her British Citizenship. So why is it that decision-makers at Tower Hamlets Council refused to her as a victim, and refused to carry out a Serious Case Review? Why did they engage in a cover-up?

#Shamimagate

Another Day in #Endz: Again in the news for all the wrong reasons

“Deep Throat stamped his foot. ‘A conspiracy like this…a conspiracy investigation…the rope has to tighten slowly around everyone’s neck’.”

Carl Bernstein – All the President’s Men

As soon as the news broke in the Times that Shamima was groomed and trafficked by the Canadian Secret services into Syria as a minor, social media was buzzing. However, what many did not know was this fact was known in 2015, a fact known both to the Police and Tower Hamlets Council. 

On the 13th of March 2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broke the story, that Turkish authorities had detained an individual who trafficked the girls into Syria. Once arrested, he claimed he was working for Canadian Secret Services. 

However, decision-makers in Tower Hamlets Council continued with the narrative of the girls voluntarily going to Syria. Despite the evidence to the contrary, and their duties as corporate parents and under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. By refusing to carry out a Serious Case Review, it appears they suppressed the facts around Shamima, allowing the Home Secretary to strip her of her British Citizenship.

Yes, according to the facts of the girls as well as the Modern Slavery Act, the girls were victims of exploitation and trafficking, and therefore victims of Modern Slavery. So why is it that decision-makers at Tower Hamlets Council refused to see them as victims, and refused to carry out a Serious Case Review? Why did they engage in a cover-up?

In Search of a Serious Case Review at Tower Hamlets Council.

As a Councillor, I first came across the case of Shamima as soon as I was elected in 2018. I was approached by Labour Party members, parents, and teachers in local schools to take up the demand for a Serious Case Review to be conducted to look into how Shamima’s case was handled.

A Serious Case Review (SCR) in England is held after a child or vulnerable adult dies or is seriously injured under circumstances where abuse or neglect is thought to have been involved. Its purpose is to learn lessons to help prevent future similar incidents.

Putting aside the human rights and humanitarian arguments concerning Shamima, compelling justification is provided, solely from a public safety point of view. The SCR is an invaluable chance to learn lessons, improve procedures and prevent such incidences from happening again.

Other Councils, in similar circumstances, carried out an SCR. For example, Brighton and Hove Council undertook their own SCR. In the report, they stated, that even though the letter of the law was open to interpretation, it was reasonable to carry out an SCR. In not carrying one out, Brighton and Hove Council will go against their own stated policy aims.

Armed with the above arguments and examples, I along with other councillors demanded an SCR in the case of Shamima and the other girls from Bethnal Green. The administration, led by Mayor John Biggs and his cabinet members, was simply not interested. 

Individual Failure or System Failure?

In searching for the answer as to how this direction of duty occurred, along with the alleged cover-up, one has two options. The easy and politically expedient approach is to pin the blame on the former Mayor, John Biggs. No real lessons are learnt, just some political point scoring.

The other is to ask, given the number of people and departments involved in Shamima’s case. Why was there a systematic failure, which contributed to a covering up of facts? How can we ensure this does not happen with other minors in Tower Hamlets?

Reflecting on the information on hand and my experience as a councillor, this system failure was down to the following five factors. Factors important to understand and address, so we don’t have a repetition of Shamima and the other Bethnal Green Girls. In this way, we can avoid the systematic failure we have witnessed at Tower Hamlets Council and its political leadership.

The five factors are:

• Human Frailty

• Institutional Failure

• Obsession with a false theory 

• Cultural Failure

• Failure of Policy

Human Frailty

“It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.”

President Richard Nixon

When I first was elected in 2018, I wrote a piece warning about the dangers of hubris the administration faced when elected with a massive majority. Making a comparison between Mayor John Biggs and President Richard Nixon. In the article, I made the case for the necessity to have dissenting opinions within the Labour administration.

After four years of reflection as a councillor and a ‘nominal’ member, I find that my predictions came through. We had a mindset of an administration set with paranoia, with any dissenting voice seen as a personal attack. 

Therefore, true to form, the administration in the case of Shamima just dug its heels in, sticking to the refusal to conduct a Serious Case Review. Regardless of the mounting evidence pointing towards the contrary.

Institutional Failure

“You don’t know how to lie. If you can’t lie, you’ll never go anywhere.”

President Richard Nixon

There were inadequate checks and balances when dealing with Shamima’s and the other Bethnal Green girls’ cases. In all the discussions within Tower Hamlets Council, or externally with other agencies, no one was speaking up for their rights. 

In the Criminal Justice system, with youth offenders, a duty solicitor is appointed free of charge. The function of the duty solicitor is to have access to all relevant agencies and to speak up for the rights of their clients. With or without any instructions received. 

With no one speaking exclusively on behalf of the girls, their rights and interests seemed to have fallen by the wayside, with each actor outside and within the Council simply looking after their institutional corporate interests.

Obsession with a false theory

“Solutions are not the answer.”

President Richard Nixon

Despite adopting in its 2018 manifesto a review of the Prevent policy, along the lines of the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, the administration chose to stick to the much-discredited approach. An approach which criminalises whole sections of our society, on the basis of mere suspicion. Contrary to the approach in other matters, where one is innocent until proven guilty. 

Therefore, from the very beginning, the administration viewed the girls as suspect terrorists, rather than according to the evidence, victims of grooming and trafficking. An inability to view the facts, due to the girl’s protected characteristics and the presumption of guilt inherent within the current Prevent policy.

Cultural Failure

“The Italians, of course, those people of course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but.”

Richard Nixon

There was a cultural failure to verify facts presented to the political leadership by bureaucrats within Tower Hamlets Council and by an external agency. A cultural failure is more akin to the logical fallacy of ‘experts’ or ‘insider knowledge. Instead of looking at the substantive issues presented, political decision-makers instead focused on who was giving them the information. 

This access to insider knowledge by political decision-makers, or ‘power trip’, blinded them from learning or accepting facts from anyone outside this privileged inner circle. 

I came across this blindness to facts when I questioned the veracity of arrests made in 2018 under Operation Continuum. The administration made a fanfare over the arrests in the mainstream media and social media, even releasing videos of police raids. 

When I confronted the Mayor with evidence of questionable arrests, including one resident with severe learning disabilities, I was just met with silence. Later on, after making inquiries with the Crown Prosecution Service, many of the cases were dropped upon review by prosecutors in the Crown Court. This fact culminated in the administration quietly dropping its promotion of arrests under Operation Continuum.

Failure of Policy

“I’m not going to be the first American president to lose a war.” 

President Richard Nixon

The policy, by Tower Hamlets Council, gave precedence to national security suspicions over other statutory duties, such as duties under the Children’s Act or the Modern Slavery Act. Under UK Administrative Law, decision-makers have to take proportionate actions and decisions.

By adopting a policy of prioritising allegations, over statutory duties, decision-makers at Tower Hamlets Council, acted contrary to standards expected of them under Administrative Law.  If a proportionate and reasonable approach was taken, then at the very least a Serous Case Review would have been undertaken, resulting in a narrative given of the girls as victims and potentially preventing the stripping of Shamima’s British Citizenship.

Contrast the above approach by Tower Hamlets Council with that of Brighton and Hove Council, where a Serious Case Review was carried out, citing principles established in Administrative Law.

All the Mayors People: A Collective Cover Up?

“Sure, there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.”

President Richard Nixon

As the story broke, Cabinet members of the previous administration started spinning a narrative to activists on the ground. The narrative was that the lead cabinet member for Children Services, Rachael Saunders, was responsible and no one else. 

Really? Let’s look at the facts.

First, Rachael stood down as a councillor in 2018. So, how does one explain the refusal by the administration from 2018 to 2022, to carry out a Serious Case Review? Or the refusal to intervene, when Shamima’s citizenship was stripped by the Home Secretary?

Second, a high-profile matter such as Shamima’s case would have been discussed in the weekly pre-meetings before the Cabinet on Wednesdays. Meetings such as the Mayor’s Advisory Board, or the Political Cabinet. Meetings are held behind closed doors, attended by the Mayor, his political advisers and his Cabinet members. So was it really a failure and a cover-up by a single individual, or a collective failure?

I’ll let the readers decide.

Bring Shamima Back!

“To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.”

Confucius

Shamima is a victim, full stop. Under the Modern Slavery Act, she needs to be brought back, and an assessment needs to be made. In light of these assessments, it will be the role of the Crown Prosecution Service whether they charge her with any offences. The situation that she is in (along with the other Bethnal Green girls) was created by failures in Tower Hamlets Council. 

Before we look at the specific remedies available to Tower Hamlets Council in light of Shamima, we need to address the systematic failures that created this tragedy. Systematic failures by Tower Hamlets Council, in our local politics and in our wider politics.

A. Fixing the Council: Making it work for all.

On the corporate level, the othering of minorities needs to be addressed at a corporate level, in particular the othering of members of the Muslim community. There needs to be a greater understanding of the Muslim community’s challenges and needs, instead of a reversion to a neoconservative binary of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. 

This could be only addressed in time through more significant learning in the Council and connected stakeholders. For example, the Council celebrates and holds events for South Asian Heritage Month or Srebrenica Memorial Day. Events and programmes that are absent from the current strategic plan at Tower Hamlets Council.

On a structural level, a new approach as proposed by the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham needs to be adopted with regard to the discredited Prevent programme. This includes the hiring of personnel who have a nuanced understanding of the Muslim community and a move away from the current ham-fisted approach, which I witnessed and challenged while being a councillor.

B. Fixing the Tower Hamlets Labour Party: No more shitty representation.

The dysfunctionality within the local Labour Party needs to be addressed. Given our current electoral system, it is not a matter of if, but when Tower Hamlets Council will have a Labour administration. Time and time again, the local party selects individuals who are functionally illiterate or not interested in doing any work. Too often, an elected role is seen as playing the monopoly board of collecting an SRA (Special Responsibility Allowance) every time you pass go. 

The cruel joke is the above selection of incompetent individuals is done in the name of ‘diversity’. Contrary to the facts on the ground, the underlying narrative is that the local Muslim community is made up of the 21st-century equivalent of country bumpkins and hill billies. Reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes of the nameless uncivilised horde (Umman-manda) that needs to be kept at bay. 

The consequence was inadequate representation, leading to deaths in the case of the Bethnal Green girls and in the case of Shamima having her citizenship stripped. Basically, shitty representation, costs lives, period. The Muslim community just like all other communities has the right to competent representation within the Labour Party, not acknowledging that fact is an act of Islamophobia.

C. Fixing our concept of Citizenship: Reimagining a new Commonwealth.

In the summer of 2021, I wrote a piece for a local news website, Tower Hamlets news, comparing the current approach to citizenship within the Council and Whitehall. Analysing Shamima’s case, it seems they were both applying the legal theory of Carl Schmitt, the legal jurist of the Third Reich. The rule of exception.

“[The] Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.”

— Carl Schmitt

Schmitt argued that the rule of law did not apply to enemies of the state. With the state defining who was and who was not an enemy. He successfully argued the doctrine in front of the German Federal Court, removing a socialist regional government from power, and thus paving the way for the Third Reich and the capture of public institutions by Adolf Hitler. In subsequent years, he extended the same doctrine to justify the expulsion of minorities and the purging of their influence from German public life.

In recent years, Schmitt and the legal doctrine of exception are now back in vogue. His ideas have been cited by US officials in providing legal justification for torture and drone strike attacks. His works have influenced the actions of authoritarian governments in China, Russia, Hungary, and Turkey. Recently, his legal doctrine of exception was cited by the far right in the German parliament, in condemnation of Angela Merkel’s Syrian refugee policy.

We need a more inclusive concept of citizenship, moving away from the narrow definition of Blue Passport Holders. We need to acknowledge the fact that Britain, in particular, London, is part of wider global society. Protections and recognition need to be given to all who contribute to the wealth of our communities, members of our ‘Commonwealth.’

“Tell me who your enemy is, and I will tell you who you are.”

— Carl Schmitt

D. Bringing Shamima Back.

The issue of Shamima and the other Bethnal Green girls started with Tower Hamlets Council, and so does the solution in bringing her back. Tower Hamlets Council as a legal entity has statutory powers to bring a prosecution, criminal or private, allowing it to apply for a warrant to the courts for Shamima to appear in the United Kingdom.

If the courts issue a warrant, then pressure can be applied on the British Government and the Foreign Office to execute the warrant. As happened with other British Nationals, they can be transferred to Iraq from Syria, where there is a presence of diplomatic mission. This allows Shamima to come back to the United Kingdom, and appeal against the revocation of her British Citizenship.

It also enables all relevant agencies to carry out an assessment of Shamima under the Modern Slavery Act. Allowing us all to get to the truth of the matter and ensure that no other youths are groomed and trafficked into a war zone. 

Mayor Lutfur Rahman claimed he was the victim of prejudice when he was removed from public office. With Shamima we have a bona fide case of a victim of prejudice, therefore it is now time to put his money where his mouth is. Allocate the resources within the Council, carry out an investigation and bring Shamima back!

“Wisdom and knowledge exist, so we can distinguish right from wrong.”

Rumi

FURTHER READING

1. Pride & Prejudice: Shamima and the rhetoric of #OneTowerHamlets

Is equality under the law being applied by Tower Hamlets Council in regard to Shamima? If so, why are they refusing to carry out a Serious Case Review? Or are Shamima and others like her, an ‘exception’ to the rule?

By Puru Miah for Tower Hamlets News, Summer of 2021

2. The Weekly Politics Show with Puru Miah and Andrew Wood 05/03/21

Tonight we covered the Shamima Begum case, joined by the lawyer Tasnime Akunjee , who has been involved in the case since 2015, with a focus on the role of Tower Hamlets Council. Did the Council do all it could around the issue of Shamima Begum being stripped of her citizenship?

A. Weekly Politics Show #005A—What could have the Council done to prevent girls from travelling to Syria?

B. Weekly Politics Show #005B – Shamima Begum, should a Serious Case Review (SCR) been carried out?

C. Weekly Politics Show #005C – Did the Council do all it can around Shamima & her citizenship?

D. Weekly Politics Show #005D – Final reflection and next steps? On the Shamima Begum case.

3. Shamima Begum: The Blame Game by ITV News, by Rohit Kachroo, February 2022.

Shamima Begum was 15 years old when she left Bethnal Green with her two school friends to travel to Syria to join the ISIS Caliphate in 2015. It was an event that left people across the world questioning how and why this could happen. As the war against ISIS continued, her fate remained a mystery. 5 years later, Shamima re-emerged in a Syrian refugee camp, her apparent lack of remorse immediately turning her into a figure of hate. From day one, ITV News, led by its Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo, has followed the story of Shamima closer than anyone else. With unparalleled archives, unique testimonies, exclusive interviews and analysis from an award-winning journalist, we unpack the story from when it started, to where we are now. It’s a story with one individual at the heart of it, but one that involves multiple agencies, institutions and countries, all seeking to shift the blame for how and why this happened. In Shamima Begum – The Blame Game, Rohit Kachroo addresses those questions.

Episode 1: The Disappearance

In February 2015, 15-year-old Shamima Begum left the UK with two of her school friends. They were travelling from the UK to Syria to join the ISIS Caliphate.

In the first few hours of the investigation, the girls seem to be on their way to Turkey. Their families and the police aren’t yet ready to make a public appeal. Everyone wants them to come back without their names and faces being pictured all over the newspapers but at Gatwick Airport the CCTV cameras have captured a powerful piece of evidence. The girls have been filmed strolling through the terminal on their way to catch their flight.

As the timeline of their journey starts to unravel, ITV’s Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo revisits the headlines to ask why they left and ultimately, who is to blame?

Episode 2: The Fallout

The girl’s journey from Bethnal Green to Syria makes headlines around the world.

A diplomatic row is brewing, territory is still being crossed by the three girls on the road towards Raqqa. It’s seventeen days since they went missing, a message comes into ITV News from a contact. It’s from a source in Syria with news about the girls. They say they’re in a safe house where they’re apparently “waiting to get married” and it sounds like they don’t want to come back.

ITV’s Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo delves into the fallout as government agencies and politicians engage in a round of finger-pointing.

Episode 3: The Escape

Eighteen months since the girls went missing and one of them – Kadiza Sultana – is dead.

Representatives from three different political parties in Tower Hamlets come together to discuss the question of a serious case review – or lack of one. Questions for the local authorities are asked.

And after years of silence, Shamima escapes from ISIS territory and is finally found. ITV’s Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo meets her to present her with a letter from the Home Secretary stripping her of her British Citizenship.

Why has she become one of the most hated women in Britain, and what role does gender play in our perception of terrorism?

Episode 4: The Consequence

Shamima Begum is no longer British. Her case is heard in the Supreme Court – but will she ever be judged fairly?

She’s stuck in a Syrian camp, with nowhere to go. Not into freedom in Syria, or back home to go on trial, and certainly not to Bangladesh.

She says she’s being singled out because of the intense media attention she’s received, but we look at other cases like hers to see just how common losing your British citizenship is.

In this final episode, ITV’s Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo looks at the role of the media and of the public in shaping Shamima’s story.