[4] In January 2024, he declared intention to run as an Independent candidate for a Member of Parliament for the newly drawn Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency in East London,[5][6] though he did not do so in the general election that July.
[12] In late 2018, a viral video of one of the physical attacks brought national attention to the severe bullying of Syrian refugee children in a school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
[14] Condemning the treatment, local MP Barry Sheerman, personally approached by Jamal for help, stated: "This young boy grew up in disturbed circumstances in a very dangerous environment and he came to England thinking it would be a haven of peace and instead found himself a victim of bullying.".
[8] Several institutional shortcomings led to the disappearance of the Bethnal Green Trio, and the Metropolitan Police later issued an apology to the families,[25] who have been since the beginning of the saga in 2015 to the present day represented by Akunjee.
She was discovered in the Al Hawl refugee camp in Northern Syria by British war correspondent Anthony Loyd,[27] having lost three children to malnutrition and nine months pregnant with her third, and her subsequent interviews led to a drop in public sympathy.
[29] Akunjee attempted to reach Begum in Syria to secure her signature for the appeal against the citizenship revocated, and was held back by Syrian forces guarding the Al Roj camp she had been relocated into for her safety following the series of interviews in which she expressed the wish to return to the UK and denounced ISIS's ideology and crimes.