Interpol has identified more than 4,000 foreign fighters who joined jihadist groups in conflict zones, mainly in Iraq and Syria. This was announced by its General Secretary, Jurgen Stock, in Barcelona on Wednesday. “In September 2014, Interpol had identified less than 900 foreign terrorist fighters. Today, less than a year later, we have more than 4,000 profiles in our database”, he said.
The General Secretary of the international police organisation spoke during the opening of an international conference in Barcelona, which will bring together the different police forces that work with Interpol. It aims to improve cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
To combat the problem of foreign fighters, Jurgen Stock called on countries to share information more efficiently and make access to international authorities easier.
“We have to remember that even though information is shared more and more between countries, we are still slower than foreign terrorists when they recruit, and enter or leave conflict zones.”
“There is still a huge difference between the number of foreign terrorist fighters we have identified and the number we think have entered conflict zones. We need to work together to change that”, said Jurgen Stock.
In total, around 25,000 foreign fighters from 100 countries joined armed groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaida, according to a UN report.
(Source: Belga)
