--- description: The three Londoners were suspected of flying to Turkey to cross into Syria last week. title: British Police Believe 3 Missing Teen Girls Have Entered Syria image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Syria](/tag/syria/) ## Syria Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # British Police Believe 3 Missing Teen Girls Have Entered Syria  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 24, 2015 11:17 PM CUT  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 24, 2015 11:17 PM CUT London’s Metropolitan Police [said](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/24/europe/turkey-uk-missing-girls/ "undefined") Tuesday that officials believe three teenage girls who traveled to Turkey have entered Syria. Police said in a statement they “now have reason to believe that \[the girls\] are no longer in Turkey,” but did not provide further details, _CNN_ reports. Officials had been hunting the classmates—Shamima Begum, 15; Kadiza Sultana, 16; and Amira Abase, 15—after they boarded an Istanbul-bound flight on Feb. 17\. The girls’ parents have publicly pleaded for them to return home. Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters earlier in the day it was “condemnable and shameful” that British authorities allowed the girls to leave for Turkey. “The search efforts are ongoing. If we can find them, great,” he said. “If not, then it is the British authorities who are responsible, not Turkey.” \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/24/europe/turkey-uk-missing-girls/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3721309/british-girls-syria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3721309/british-girls-syria/"},"headline":"British Police Believe 3 Missing Teen Girls Have Entered Syria","datePublished":"2015-02-24T23:17:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:41:00.983Z","description":"The three Londoners were suspected of flying to Turkey to cross into Syria","url":"https://time.com/3721309/british-girls-syria/","keywords":["Syria"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/syria/","name":"Syria"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3721309/british-girls-syria/","name":"British Police Believe 3 Missing Teen Girls Have Entered Syria"}}]}] ```