Would-be ISIL fighters are increasingly booking tickets on cruise ships to join extremists in battle zones in Syria and Iraq, hoping to bypass stepped-up efforts to thwart them in neighboring Turkey, an Interpol official said to media.
According to the NY Daily News, wannabe terrorists hoping to avoid detection are hitching rides on cruise ships to join the murderous Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Speaking in Monaco, where Interpol is holding its general assembly this week, outgoing chief Ronald Noble confirmed that Turkey was a destination, but declined to identify any others. He also refused to indicate how many people might be involved, but called on countries to step up screening at all transportation hubs – “airports and, more and more, cruise lines.”
Turkish authorities had set up teams to nab suspected foreign fighters in airports and bus stations, and have deported hundreds in recent months.
“Because they know the airports are monitored more closely now, there’s a use of cruise ships to travel to those areas,” said Pierre St. Hilaire, director of counterterrorism at Interpol.
İzmit is the most popular hub
Pierre St. Hilaire, director of counterterrorism at Interpol, suggested that the Turkish crackdown has shown results in recent months, and so some would-be militants are making alternative travel plans.
Referring to a Turkish coastal town, St Hilaire underlined that individuals, especially in Europe, are traveling mostly to Izmit.
According to latest UN report, — 15,000 fighters or more from 81 countries are traveling to Syria and Iraq joining ISIL.
Interpol plans to monitor all transportation hubs
Because the ships make frequent stops, the ISIL recruits are able to hop off undetected at any number of ports — complicating efforts to track them.
“In order to prevent their travel and identify them, there needs to be greater information-sharing among the region among national security agencies.” Interpol officials say.
This is one of the reasons why the international police body is preparing to expand a pilot program known as I-Checkit, under which airlines bounce passenger information off Interpol’s databases – in hopes that one day the system could expand to include cruise operators, banks, hotels and other private-sector partners.
Many European governments have expressed concern that home-grown jihadis who self-radicalize online and then travel to Syria will return home with skills to carry out terror attacks. Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who allegedly spent a year in Syria and fought with ISIL, is the chief suspect in a May attack on the Jewish Museum of Brussels that killed four people.
Source: BGN News
