Three London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria earlier this year have reportedly made contact with their families in the UK.
Schoolfriends Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, travelled from east London to Turkey in February and are believed to have then crossed into areas of Syria controlled by Islamic State (Isis).
More than three months on, however, ITV News has reported that one of them has called relatives in the UK to say that she is healthy, safe and well but has insisted that she and the others do not intend to return home soon.
Her friends were also reported to have contacted relatives over the internet.
The families of the girls have accused British police of failing to give them crucial information that they say could have stopped their daughters from joining Isis. They accuse officers of covering up their errors since the girls went missing.
In interviews with the Guardian in March, the families spoke of the nightmare they have been living through since the girls disappeared and say they had no reason to suspect they had been radicalised.
At that point, they said they still had no idea where the three girls found the money to buy their plane tickets to Turkey on their journey to join the terrorist group.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, has said that the three teenagers can return home without fear of being prosecuted for terrorism.
Appearing in front of MPs on the home affairs committee earlier this year, Hogan-Howe said of the teenagers’ departure: “This is a huge propaganda coup for Isis and a big blow to the credibility of what is supposed to be … the best police service in the world.”
He and his head of counter-terrorism, Mark Rowley, went into the session having had to admit that with hindsight, letters meant for the girls’ parents saying a 15-year-old schoolfriend had fled to join Isis weeks earlier should have been handed directly to their parents. Instead the letters were given to the girls, who hid them.
