The three young girls who have purportedly fled to Syria

Regarding The Spanish Civil War, whilst that produced many appalling atrocities, I would question whether those that went to help the effort there would have reveled in "joining in" such horrors. I imagine 1930s media would have been somewhat limited in any case, so those seeking to go to Spain may not have known just what they were getting into. No excuses with this lot! Although a Muslim male commentator who I was listening to at the week-end, made the point that possibly some of these girls don't read the press where they would find out about "a woman's lot" under the current regime, but take their information from social media sites where what they are being sold is packaged somewhat differently.

Your last point is very apt TerriBull. My (muslim) boys relied wholly on muslim social media when they arrived and were very shocked at the discrepancies in reporting when they started to get their news from a variety of sources. It took them a long time to begin to trust western news services.

Maybe they seek what to them is an 'exciting' life in contrast to the dictated norm for many Muslim (and other) females of chosen suitor, marriage and babies?

But do we know that these girls are from oppressive male dominated households? The photographs show them wearing western clothes, and they were all well educated and high achievers with professional careers ahead. This rather blows away the apologists who blame lack of social mobilty/poverty/islamophobic practices for young people being attracted to the so called glamour of IS. These girls would seem to have good opportunities and good education and certainly access to the internet and social media. They also had funds to buy air tickets. They may be naive but they are not, I think, poor little girls who have been kept shut away by their male relatives. One of the girls had stolen her older sister's passport. I also don't think it is the fault of the border agency for letting them through, they had passports, they had tickets, what are they to do? Stop every asian teenager going on holiday and question them? What about white teenagers? I honestly feel heart sorry for their families, and hope they get their girls back home safely, but I don't think this is the fault of UK government/border agency/dept of education or whoever else is being blamed. They are teenagers and remember; they know everything.

Isnt it strange that a lot of us know so little about people that are living in Britain with us.

Good point Gill, yet some photos of their families show the women wearing traditional dress.
I certainly think any youngsters heading for Syria should be questioned-if only to ascertain their intentions. These were British girls leaving the UK, not Syrian girls heading for home, and I would also query Syria as a holiday destination when travel there is not advised, by the Foreign Office.
Would they have needed visas?

My children like most Xpat children regularily travelled unaccompanied around Europe.
The only time questions were asked was when DD age 15 was going to visit family friends in Morroco.
No questions at Heathrow, she had flown there to catch a connecting flight to Casablanca, no questions here either.
Her arrival in Casa was very different, met at the aircraft by immigration officials and a female police officer, our friends were taken into a room and questioned, luckily we had been warned of this by other freinds and had provided notarised letters for our friends copies of which our DD also had.
Friends cousin who was with them got a real grilling as he was not named on the documents.
That was 14 years ago, if Morroco can carry out these checks when a child has full permission of parents to travel, surely Turkey should also be doing so.

Loopylou the people who go to join IS don't go direct to Syria: as you said, it is not a holiday destination. They go via Turkey, along with thousands of holiday makers, and people who have second homes there etc. The jihadists then get them across the border into Syria. The weather has been awful in Turkey, there was heavy snow on the roads, so the hope is that the girls will still be stuck in Turkey and unable to get smuggled into Syria, although the worry is that they are being held somewhere by whoever has lured them over. I also wonder, when it is found that they are middle class girls, if they be of more use as kidnap hostages to IS? This will open up a whole new horror.

Why should Turkey be the one to carry out these checks, if the girls' own country of origin hasn't bothered to do so?

As felice says, young people including females can travel all over the place, unaccompanied.

Turkey isnt carrying out checks, the girls have arrived in Turkey with passports and of their own free will.

My worry if they are eventually found and brought home is what they might do "instead". They cannot just pretend it was all a big mistake and go back to being normal girls (whatever normal is in their weird world).

Why should we expect other countries to carry out checks just incase some idiot girls want to become ISIS brides. If they cannot bear to live in a civilised, western country and have the freedoms that they clearly don't want, well so be it. But there is no way they should be rescued when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan and they realise that its all been a big mistake.

Friends' children regularly joined them abroad during their school holidays. I don't think they were accompanied or escorted to the flight after a certain age, 14 I think.

Perhaps i expressed it wrongly I just wanted to show that even 14 years ago some countries were checking on unaccompanied children. DD travelled from the UK to Portugal at the age of 8 with her Autistic 16 year old brother.
Not a word at either end, they had letters with them but just walked through at each end.
Under the present conditions I am very surprised the UK authorities didn't pick up something, but then again they seem to be more concerned with who is entering than leaving, I cannot remember the last time i had even my passport checked at a ferry terminal on leaving the UK.
I regularily enter but never leave.!!!!!

Yes quite Felice you get checked in entry but unless I am wrong about our lack of exit controls, the "authorities" would have to rely on the airline instructing the ground staff to alert them. Or the Turkish immigration authorities.
If you drive to Ireland and back by car your identity does not get checked in either direction. They check your car reg and number of passengers and wave you through. Our borders are very lightly controlled.
Good Mishap I'm glad. Perils of posting.
Do we actually know who paid for the flights?
I do feel terribly sorry for the parents.

God forbid they should return with fanatic ambitions.... Doesn't bear thinking about gillybob.
I assume should they return that they'll be viewed with suspicion equal to those of the male 'recruits'?

Exactly loopylou If, they do return they should be monitored closely for a VERY long time. Likewise their families and friends. Most of whom must have have had an idea of what was going on. How would you know that they were not plotting to carry out some kind of terrorist activity? We cannot treat these girls any differently to a potential male recruit. Both equally as dangerous.

Good question JessM who did pay for their flights?

They were or are probably trying to hook up with their friend who left in December.
And whose Facebook or email or whatever may actually be being largely written by someone else.
The flights may well have been paid for by ISIS?

Have to say folks, the tone of this thread is not exactly sympathetic to the parents or to the silly girls who have made a bad choice. I made some bad choices when I was young (but not that young) and so did my kids.
I think they are much more likely to be a horrific risk of exploitation and the dangers of a war zone than they are likely to be budding terrorists.

I didn't mean to sound unsympathetic to the families, or the girls and apologise to them if my post sounded overly judgemental. I was trying to make the point about teenage girls being experts at hoodwinking those who love and try and protect them. As someone said earlier, teenagers know everything and all to often, wonder how their parents have staggered through life knowing so little.
There are so many pernicious influences on children/young people of this age, whatever social class, race or faith they are growing up in. I hope these girls are safe and that the dreadful weather in Turkey may have slowed their progress to Syria down enough for them to be located. If they are returned to their families, I feel for all of them in trying to make sense of this and rebuild their lives.

DH and I have just filled in visas on line for Turkey. You need a computer a printer a credit card and your passport. It cost 20$ . And as we said at the end good job those girls were grade A* students . I think the parents must have been very negligent. I would think responsible parents would know what their daughters would be doing on line and given they had the use of a credit card how would an airline ticket not be noticed. The whole thing is fishy.
I read on slate I think it was or the huffing ton post that ISIS "warriors"were making large purchase of Viagra and sexy underwear for their women captives. And these girls from Bethnal Green will not expect to be raped and treated as sex slaves. Time for the teaching staff there to get real.

I heard the head teacher interviewed on the radio earlier. The school blocks internet, twitter etc in their buildings. I am not convinced that all caring, cautious parents check their children's bank accounts or their internet history. All the girls had to do was wipe their history I think, to avoid their parents knowing what they were up to. I certainly don't feel we're in a position to question the parents motives on the information we have to date. What a nightmare for any loving parent and based on the girls success at school, it sounds as though they did have loving homes that encouraged them educationally, as well as caring for them.

It seems to have become more and more important for parents and guardians to know what their children are doing online.
That is easy to say but not so easy to do. Especially now computers are totally mobile.
When mine were teenagers, we insisted on the computer being in the living room, and looking over their shoulders from time to time.
I dont know quite what we would do nowadays about it.
We would have to insist on some level of parental control.
I know that it all sounds draconian, but better than the alternative in my opinion.
<awaits outcry>

[and I am not saying that the parents of the three teenagers could have done anything better or different than they did]

I am very concerned about these children, who it is highly likely have been groomed. In my view they are still children at fifteen and sixteen and there is, as yet, no evidence that their parents are anything other than caring, loving parents.
My son in law was killed by a muslim boy of a similar age and I'm glad my daughter was able to acknowledge that he was still just a child even though his actions had such a catastrophic personal effect on her life. When I think back to my own teen years I see some of the idiotic choices I made and I cringe. These girls may well have been sold a lie and believed it, but which of us haven't? In time I sincerely hope they find a way to come home and be reunited with their families. And yes, they should be under surveillance until such time as they have demonstrated they are no longer taken in by the claims of radical Islam.

I do not hold out much hope of them coming back - they are too much of a publicity coup for IS and they will make sure they get hoovered in.

How grim it all is.