It should never have come to alleged espionage for us to notice that what happened to the Bethnal Green trio has been covered up from the very beginning (Shamima Begum’s is a story of trafficking, betrayal and now, it seems, a state cover-up, 2 September). I have been confounded by the equanimity that met the government’s decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship and the supreme court’s bizarre ruling, which accepted that she had limited access to a fair trial while not seeing fit to allow her return to the UK.
Begum is the legal responsibility of the UK, and the rejection of this duty encapsulates the political abuse of the law and the unfathomable public acceptance of this. The irony of human rights is that they are popular on a superficial level, but where they are truly required, they are contentious and contradicted. If we make exceptions to rights for those who need them most, we simply do not have any rights.
The UK government does not want to take any responsibility for the radicalisation of three young British girls on English soil. It has failed Begum since 2015, and the alleged Canadian intervention is simply further evidence of this. I have no doubt that the UK will continue to kick the can of catastrophic failure and responsibility down the road.
Flora Mackechnie
Canterbury, Kent
• It always seemed wrong that Shamima Begum was deprived of British citizenship for one simple reason: she was 15 when she left this country, a child clearly groomed by Islamic State, and therefore was in the equivalent of an abusive relationship and a victim.
Removing her citizenship because she stayed after she turned 18 is the same as telling a victim of any abusive relationship that as an adult they have no recourse to the law or protection from it when they attempt or manage to leave their abuser. Of course schoolgirls would have needed help to travel that far, and now it appears there is evidence that they did have it – from someone with links to the security services.
Nicola Bailey
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
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