The families of nine British medical students and doctors, who are feared to have crossed into Syria through Turkey, have been spending the last few days along the Turkish-Syrian border in search of their children.
"These kids have always been involved in charity work, and they traveled to Turkey to help those wounded in (the Syrian) war and provide medical help to refugees along the (Turkish-Syrian) border," the father of one of the missing medics told The Anadolu Agency Monday in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.
Speaking in Arabic, and wishing not to be identified, the father said that the families have not heard from their children since they arrived in Turkey from Sudan.
''We would like to stress that these kids are here for humanitarian purposes," he said, adding that they requested help from Turkish authorities to find them.
The BBC reported Sunday that the group of nine, all in their late teens or early 20s, had been studying medicine in Sudan.
The medics are believed to have entered Syria more than a week ago to work in areas controlled by Daesh militants, it said.
BBC Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen said some of the missing medics had sent messages to their families saying they were doing voluntary work to help Syrians.
"We are providing consular assistance to their families and we have informed the Turkish police to try and ascertain their whereabouts," the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement Sunday.
The medics have been identified as Mohammed Wael Fadlallah, Tasneem Suliman, Ismail Hamdoun, Nada Sami Kader, Mohammed Elbadri Ibrahim, Rawan Kamal Zine El Abidine, Tamir Ahmed Abusibah, Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir and Sami Ahmed Kadir.
