Three British teens who were allegedly bound for Syria to join the Islamic State group were detained on Sunday in a Turkish airport and sent back to the UK.

Sources said that the three British teens had arrived to the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul through Spain.

Turkish intelligence officers from the police department spotted the trio identified only as Gafur H, Muhammed N and Muhammed Abdulla H.

The cooperation between the Turkish police and British police has intensified after three British teenage girls Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, went missing from East London in early February and reportedly arrived in Turkey to cross into Syria.

The Turkish police intelligence group has monitored more than a thousand people arriving in Turkey this year, and sent nearly half of them back to their countries.

The families of the three schoolgirls have criticised British police who they said failed to warn them that one of the girl's friends had disappeared and was thought to be in Syria.

In December, police spoke to all three girls about their missing friend and gave them a courtesy letter to pass on to their parents which the families say was never passed onto them.