London - The mother of a schoolgirl feared to be heading to Syria to fight with Islamic State militants wept on Wednesday as she pleaded for her safe return.
Safiya Hussien made a direct appeal to her daughter Yusra, 15, who has made no contact with her heartbroken family since heading to school from her home in Bristol on Wednesday last week.
At an emotional press conference, school dinner lady Hussien said: “Yusra, I am your mom, I love you. Please, please, please, we miss you, come back. The house is not the same when you left. Please, please – look at me.”
Detectives believe Yusra met at Heathrow with another would-be jihadi – a girl aged 17 from south London – where they boarded a flight to Turkey with the intention of heading to Syria.
As police stepped up their hunt for the pair on Wednesday, a senior Labour politician questioned how Yusra – an unaccompanied minor – was allowed to catch the flight out of Britain in the first place.
The missing girl’s family echoed calls for action over the role of border officials in preventing children from flying abroad without their parents. It also emerged that police and border guards at Turkey’s “gateway to jihad” are not even looking for the missing girls.
Neither the Turkish Home Office, the border police head office, or internal security officials said it had any information about them.
Hussien’s appeal came minutes after David Cameron told the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham that young Britons travelling abroad to join extremists should be treated as an “enemy of the UK”. Desperate for news of her daughter, Hussien released a new picture of the “bubbly” schoolgirl, who wants to be a dentist and is described as a “grade A” student.
Yusra’s aunt Sucdi Ali said her niece was a “typical teenager” who enjoyed playing table tennis, riding her bicycle and running with her brother – who was “the next Mo Farah”.
She said Yusra had shown no sign of being radicalised or any intention of running away, but condemned the ease with which an unaccompanied minor “on a school day” was able to board a flight to Turkey – a known transit point for would-be jihadists.
David Hanson, shadow immigration minister, also said there were “questions to be asked” of border security.
He said: “The border should be made stronger and exit checks should be the norm.” British Airways, one of two airlines that fly to Turkey direct from Heathrow, said children aged over 12 can travel alone.
However, family friend Afzal Shah called on Home Secretary Theresa May to insist that children should not fly alone unless expressly given permission or unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Friends believe Yusra, who has three brothers and a young sister, had become radicalised after being “brainwashed” on online chat rooms and forums. However, her parents described her as a “typical teenager” and said there was no “concrete evidence” of her plans. “Our family is very heartbroken and we are struggling to come to terms with this situation,” they said in a statement.
“The pain that we as parents feel, at not knowing her safety, is very distressing, and is something we believe every parent can relate to.
The South East Counter Terrorism Unit, which is now heading the search, warned others against travelling to Syria, adding: “Our aim is to not criminalise young people, it is to prevent tragedies.”
Cameron told the Tory conference there was no “walk on by” option and warned young Britons who travel to Syria or Iraq to join extremists that the government will “use everything at our disposal to stop you”.
“You have declared your allegiance – you are an enemy of the UK and you should expect to be treated as such,” said the Prime Minister.
The Hussien family said they could not comment on the remarks. Yusra’s disappearance follows that of twins Zahra and Salma Halane, 16, from Manchester, who are thought to have travelled to Syria in July. - Daily Mail