HEARTBROKEN mum Tanya Borg is desperate to find her daughters, who were snatched by their father and are now believed to be living in war-torn Libya.

Angel and Maya were three and 15 in 2015, when Mrs Borg’s husband Mohammed El Zubaidy took them abroad with her permission but never brought them home again, and her nightmare began.

Now Mrs Borg, of Stratton Road, Pewsey, is desperate to go out to Libya herself and track down her girls, despite battling against the threat of losing legal aid.

In 2012 her two daughters and son were first taken to Libya by their father to visit his family. Upon returning, Mr El Zubaidy demanded the children attend Islamic school at the weekend or he would refuse to bring them home.

Then in 2015, he took them to Tunisia but went across the border to Libya. In 2016 he brought his son back to the UK and was imprisoned in 2017 for refusing to comply with a High Court order to return the girls to their mother.

He was released in March 2018 and given until the end of the month to return the girls to the UK. He still refused and is now serving a 12-month prison sentence.

Mrs Borg said: “It is impossible to keep going but I have no choice. Since March 2017, I haven’t heard a word from my girls.

“I think he started to change when his father died and we started arguing over my older daughter.

“I used to stick up for her but he wouldn’t let her have sleepovers or any privacy, he refused to let her close her bedroom door.

“I know where my husband’s mum lived, but I don’t know if they’ve moved. Ideally if we could get a team together we would go out there.

“He has played the British courts system.”

Throughout the ordeal Mrs Borg continued to get up and go to work, but has now discovered that because she works as a nursery worker she might not be entitled to legal help, leaving her in £50,000 of debt.

Her sister Christina Borg set up a fund online and so far 55 people have pledged £2,030

Christina, 28, from Homefields, Marlborough, said: “It is heartbreaking because the girls have never even met my youngest child.

“My sister has shown a real strength, others would have caved in when faced with something less serious than this but she has kept going. I have gone through a range of emotions including anger and sadness at how long it has all taken.”

Mrs Borg is still talking to the Foreign Office and the Libyan Embassy in the hope they can help track down the girls and bring them home.

Visit the just giving page raising funds here: https://www.gofundme.com/help-me-raise-funds-for-my-sister