The father of one of the 'Bethnal Green three' says Britain has a duty to welcome Shamima Begum back and said: 'She should be allowed to come home and have her baby in peace'.
Abase Hussen, 52, the father of Bethnal Green jihadi bride Amira Abase, said the schoolgirls are victims who be brought back to the UK and 'helped, not punished'.
Miss Begum is in a Syrian refugee camp about to have her third child and says that her friend Amira is alive but Kadiza Sultana died in an air strike two years ago.
He said: 'These girls were young. They were manipulated by evil people and they should be brought home and helped. Not punished.
'The British government have not done anything to help me or the other parents. We have been badly treated. Shamima should be allowed to come home and have her baby in peace.
'I'm just waiting for the time when I can see my daughter. Ever since she left I have had hope. Tomorrow is another day. You never know what will happen tomorrow. The last time I spoke to her was a very, very long time ago.'
Abase Hussen, 52, the father of Amira Abase, (left today) welcomed news that his daughter and her friend Shamima Begum (right) are alive ans said that they should come back to Britain if then can
Sharmeema Begum - the first Bethnal Green girl to flee to Syria before her three younger friends followed
2014
- December - Counter terrorism police question Shamima Begum, Kadiz Sultana and Amira Abase after their friend Sharmeema Begum goes to Syria.
2015
- February 17 - Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase leave their east London homes at 8am to travel to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport. Begum and Abase - who has not yet been publicly named - are reported missing by their families later the same day.
- February 18 - Sultana is reported missing to the police.
- February 20 - The Metropolitan Police launch a public appeal for information on the missing girls who are feared to have gone on to Syria.
- February 21 - Four days after the girls went missing, police believe they may still be in Turkey.
It is revealed that at least one of the missing girls had Twitter contact with Aqsa Mahmood, who left her Glasgow home in November 2013 and travelled to Syria after becoming radicalised.
- February 22 - Abase's father Abase Hussen says his daughter told him she was going to a wedding on the day she disappeared. Metropolitan Police officers arrive in Turkey, but refuse to confirm whether they are involved in the search for the teenagers.
2016
- August 2016 - Sultana, 17, is reportedly killed in Raqqa when a suspected Russian air strike obliterates her house.
2019
- February 14 - Begum, 19, tells Anthony Loyd of The Times that she wants to return to the UK to give birth to her third child. Speaking from a refugee camp in Syria, she adds she does not regret joining IS and that she believes, contrary to reports in 2018, that her other companion Abase is still alive in Baghuz.
When asked if he thinks the girls should be able to return to Britain to restart their lives, he said: 'As a parent there is no question. To have your children around you... there is no question. That would make me happy. It gives me some hope as well.'
He added: 'It was just a mistake that the girls left their families to go to a place like that.
'What I would say to her, if she reads this, is just come back, please. Come home to us. That's all I can say'.
He went on: "The last conversation we had
