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Theresa May refuses to say if British schoolgirls who fled to Syria to be jihadi brides could return to UK amid reports they are on the run from Isis

May said attempts to return are dealt with on case-by-case basis

Heather Saul
Wednesday 13 May 2015 12:09 EDT
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Kazida Sultana, Amira Abase, and Shamima Begum (left to right)
Kazida Sultana, Amira Abase, and Shamima Begum (left to right) (Met Office)

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Theresa May has declined to say whether three British teenagers who are reported to be on the run from Isis after joining the terror group in Syria would be allowed back into the UK.

The Home Secretary would say only that attempts to return are dealt with on a "case-by-case" basis after a blogger in Mosul claimed three young girls were missing and Isis was searching checkpoints for them.

Shamima Begum, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana disappeared from their homes in east London in February and flew to Turkey, where they then crossed the border into Syria. Footage apparently showing the girls being helped across the border by a man was later confiscated by Turkish authorities.

At least one of the teenagers is believed to have been in contact with Aqsa Mahmood, a British woman living under Isis’s self-declared caliphate, before they fled the UK.

Left to right: Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum caught on CCTV at Gatwick airport on their way to Turkey
Left to right: Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum caught on CCTV at Gatwick airport on their way to Turkey

The Mosul Eye Facebook page, which claims to be written by an independent historian living inside the Iraqi Isis stronghold, wrote on 2 May: "Three girls, (Foreigners - British) married to Isis militants, reported missing, and Isis announced to all its check points to search for them. It is believed that those girls have escaped."

In another post, he added: "The latest info I got on them is they are still on the run, but still in Mosul, and Isis is thoroughly searching for them and hasn't captured them yet. They are Brits, not immigrants, and they are very young teens (around 16-years-old). That's all I have about them for now."

The post led to unconfirmed speculation the three girls mentioned in this post may have been Shamima, Amira and Kadiza. It is not known how they would have reached Iraq from Isis-controlled territories across the border in Syria.

CCTV footage has emerged believed to show the three teenage girls - Shamima Begum, Kadiza Sultana, and Amira Abase - at a bus station in Istanbul in the footage
CCTV footage has emerged believed to show the three teenage girls - Shamima Begum, Kadiza Sultana, and Amira Abase - at a bus station in Istanbul in the footage

Asked whether all three would be permitted to return to the UK, Mrs May told ITV1's Good Morning Britain: "Obviously there are young people who go to Syria, some of whom find that what they see there is not what they thought it was going to be.

"We look on a case-by-case basis, and people have come back - youngsters who have gone there and suddenly realise what a mistake they've made."

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Independent: “We are aware of reports and are looking into them.”

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