A handwritten list discovered in the bedroom of one of the three London schoolgirls feared to have fled to join Islamic State (Isis), seen by the Guardian, details the items they needed to buy as well as the travelling costs of getting to Syria.

The items ranged from a mobile phone to underwear, makeup and an epilator. Plane tickets to get them to Turkey are listed at just over £1,000, using the French word for ticket. The list appears to be in keeping with an Isis online guide for potential recruits.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, travelled from London to Turkey last month. The girls, all from the Bethnal Green Academy in east London, were lured by Isis propaganda and are believed to be on a pathway to become so called “jihadi brides”. Police were handed the list by the family of one of the girls, who went through her things immediately after she disappeared.

Family members will on Tuesday testify before the home affairs committee of MPs. They will be followed by Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, from whom they want an apology for his force’s handling of the case. Last week the girls’ families spoke out against the police for failing to pass on information about another girl from the same school who disappeared and was believed to have travelled to Syria, arguing that had they known they might have been able to prevent their daughters from following.



The family of 15-year-old Londoner Amira Abase, who is believed to have joined Islamic State (Isis) forces in Syria tell the Guardian that police could have done more to prevent the girl and her friends from leaving the country Guardian

The planning and costings suggest the three schoolmates were having to be careful about making sure they had enough money for the trip. Their families told the Guardian in an interview last week they had no idea where their the girls had got the money from. A grand total is written on the list of 2,190, most likely to refer to pounds sterling.

The handwritten list details items to potential Isis recruits needed to buy. Photograph: The Guardian

The list is written on a page from a diary and planner, and the handwriting is by two different people. At first glance it would appear to be a list that teenagers would draw up for a camping trip. The items are listed, then the initials of the girl’s first name, showing either who was to purchase them or who they were for, and then the cost. An epilator at £50 is to be purchased, as are two sets of underwear for two girls for £12, socks for £4, a phone for £75.

The three, who had been described as good students, fled on 17 February while they were on a half-term break, taking a flight from Gatwick to Turkey, which borders Syria. A few days later they are believed to have crossed the border and entered land in Syria held by Isis.

Also on the list are makeup, boots and a bra. The bottom of the list, seemingly in different handwriting to the top, lists the logistics and costs to Turkey, and then across to the border with Syria. These sums include money for visas, a coach, a hotel for one or two nights, a taxi and some extra cash.

CCTV footage after the girls arrived in Istanbul in Turkey showed them waiting at Bayrampaşa bus station in a suburb of the city after their flight landed. It is believed they waited 18 hours at the bus station.

Turkish authorities have said that the UK did not inform them for three days after their disappearance, but the British say Istanbul was told promptly.

Some people in east London claimed to have seen some of the girls the Saturday before they left at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, but they did not see what they were buying.

On Saturday the Met issued a statement apparently rejecting the families’ key claim that they had not been told that a 15-year-old friend of the girls had gone to Syria weeks earlier. The Met said the families had been told in December 2014 by the deputy headteacher of the Bethnal Green Academy, which all the girls had attended. Hours later it retracted its statement, citing “further discussions with Bethnal Green Academy”.

CCTV pictures aired on Turkish television station A Haber, appears to show three girls entering a bus station in Istanbul on the same evening Guardian

The Met statement followed media interviews with the families on Friday. The families accused the force of covering up their errors since the girls went missing. Police wrote letters to the parents saying their children had been friends with the pupil who had gone abroad and asking for permission to take formal statements. But instead of delivering the letters directly to the parents, police handed them on 5 February to the girls themselves, who hid them in their school textbooks in their bedrooms. The families only found the letters after the girls left.

The Met statement did appear to show some contrition, stating: “With the benefit of hindsight, we acknowledge that the letters could have been delivered direct to the parents.”