Parents and schools must play a role in preventing young Britons going abroad to join the Islamic State militant group, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
Mr Cameron was speaking as the parents of three schoolgirls believed to have gone to Syria with the intention of joining IS were preparing to appear before MPs on the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to give evidence about police failings which they believe contributed to their departure.
Schoolfriends Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, travelled from east London to Turkey last month and then crossed into an IS-controlled area of Syria.
Their families have called for an apology from Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe – also appearing before the committee today – after it emerged that letters were given to the girls to hand on to their parents, rather than being sent directly to them.
The letters, informing parents their children had been friends with a pupil who went to Syria weeks earlier and asking for permission to take formal statements, were handed to the girls on February 5 and found hidden in schoolbooks in their bedrooms after the girls left on February 17.
In an interview with LBC radio, Mr Cameron said that no institution should be made a “scapegoat” for the girls’ disappearance.
“I think everyone has a role to play. Of course we need the police to act as swiftly as they can, we need Border Force to work as fast as they can.
“But let’s be frank about this, when you have got educated British schoolgirls at an outstanding school in Greenwich finding it somehow attractive to get on a plane to travel to Syria to go and live in a country where gay people are being thrown off buildings and British citizens are being beheaded, and appalling brutality is being meted out, we have a problem, clearly, that has got to involve all of us – politicians, parents, communities, schools.
“Everyone has to work together. Let’s not pretend this is simply a problem that can be dealt with by policing.
“If there are lessons to learn about how quick the reactions were, then I know the police will learn them. What I’m trying to say is I think it would be wrong to try and scapegoat any one organisation when you are dealing with something that is so profound.
“What is going wrong when girls at an amazing school somehow want to give up all Britain offers in terms of freedom and democracy and choice and opportunity? I’m not saying our society is perfect, but you can come from anywhere and make it to the top of Britain. We’re an amazing country – why do people want to give that up and be part of an appalling brutal death cult?
“That goes to a big question about our country that we’ve all got to answer, not just the police.”