A desperate mum is crowdfunding a campaign to find her two young daughters after they were abducted by their father and taken to Libya.
Tanya Borg, 40, has been fighting to get Angel and Maya back since Mohammed El Zubaidy took them abroad to ‘meet their gran’.
He claimed he was taking the girls to Tunisia but, after landing, quickly whisked them across the border to Tripoli.
Tanya has previously said that she fears the girls are now being forced to live a strict Muslim lifestyle with little or no freedom or education.
She has been granted full custody of Angel, 20, and Maya, eight, in both Britain and Libya since they were taken in 2015.
But Tanya is still no closer to getting her daughters back, with her ex-husband El Zubaidy, 42, having been jailed twice for breaching orders to return them.
He has told judges he does not know where the children are and cannot return them.
Tanya has now started a crowdfunding campaign and is asking villagers in Pewsey, Wilts., to join her in an event to raise awareness this weekend (July 25).
Angel was previously a Pewsey Carnival Princess, so locals are being urged to join the mum along the procession route.
Tanya said: “We will make sure everyone is in a mask and keeps socially-distanced.”
El Zubaidy took the girls and their brother to Libya in 2015 – and Tanya has not seen the girls since then.
Her ex-husband returned with their son, who cannot be named, a year later when Tanya pretended she would be willing to sign over custody for all three children.
She then obtained a High Court order for him to return her daughters, and in 2017 El Zubaidy was put behind bars for refusing to comply.
He was released from jail in February 2018 and given until the end of the month to return the girls to Britain.
But he claimed not to know where they were – and was sentenced to another 12 months behind bars.
Tanya took legal action in Libya after travelling to Tripoli last year.
She saw her children briefly during her visit but her lawyer said they disappeared after a local judge ordered the grandmother to bring them to a court hearing.
She said: “I have had no contact with them since.
“When I was there, the grandmother never left us alone and family members seem afraid to help, although they told me the girls are kept under lock and key.
“They are prisoners.
“I’m pretty much back to square one. I just don’t know what do do next.
“Their father would rather go to jail than bring the girls back, and the police and the Foreign Office are not doing anything.”
Tanya believes her ex-husband secretly plotted to take the children back to his home country for years.
She said previously she noticed a change in El Zubaidy in 2012, when her two daughters and a son were taken to Libya to visit his dying father.
El Zubaidy, of Wood Green, London, then started to demand the children attended an Islamic school at the weekend – or he would refuse to bring them home.
He also began to impose strict rules, particularly about their older daughter, including refusing to allow her to have friends to stay or to keep her bedroom door closed.
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that a Wiltshire Police investigation in 2018 resulted in no further action being taken in relation to this matter following CPS advice.
“We understand and sympathise with Ms Borg’s situation and the distress she has been going through.
“However, the civil case for custody has been dealt with by the High Court, and, at this stage, there is no ongoing Wiltshire Police investigation.”
A Foreign and Commonwealth office spokesperson said: “We are in contact with the mother of two British children in Libya and her solicitor.
“This is a complex case and we are providing support where we can.
“However, our consular operations remain suspended in Libya due to the volatile security situation.”
The FCO says staff have been supporting Tanya for a number of years, signposting her to steps she can take to facilitate her children’s return to Britain.
