Now Jihadi Fighters are Booking Tickets on Cruise Ships to Join Extremists in Syria and Iraq
- Jihadists hoping to bypass efforts to thwart them in neighbouring Turkey
- According to Interpol, the phenomenon has been used for three months
- Interpol now wants to expand I-Checkit programme - where airlines share information from its databases - to include cruise operations
Daily Mail UK, 7 November 2014
Would-be jihadi fighters are booking tickets on cruise ships to join extremists in battle zones in Syria and Iraq.
The new tactic has been deployed by jihadists hoping to bypass the stepped-up efforts to thwart them in neighbouring Turkey.
According to Interpol officials, the phenomenon is relatively new and has been used by would-be fighters in the last three months.
Would-be jihadi fighters are travelling on cruise ships to try and join extremist groups in Syria and Iraq
Turkey, with its long and often porous border with Syria, has been a major thoroughfare for many of the thousands of foreign fighters seeking to join extremists like ISIS, which has captured territory across Iraq and Syria.
Turkish authorities say they have set up teams to capture suspected foreign fighters in airports and bus stations, and have deported hundreds in recent months.
As such, would-be jihadists have made alternative travel arrangements to reach battle zones.
Pierre St. Hilaire, director of counterterrorism at Interpol, said:
'Because they know the airports are monitored more closely now, there's a use of cruise ships to travel to those areas.
'There is evidence that the individuals, especially in Europe, are traveling mostly to Izmit and other places to engage in this type of activity,' he said, referring to a Turkish coastal town.
'Originally, our concern about people on cruise ships - dangerous people on cruise ships - really focused on the classic sort of rapist, burglar, or violent criminal.
'But as we've gathered data, we've realised that there are more and more reports that people are using cruise ships in order to get to launch pads, if you will - sort of closer to the conflict zones - of Syria and Iraq.'
The outgoing Interpol chief called on countries to step up screening at all transportation hubs to halt the advance of extreme groups such as ISIS
Cruise ships, which often make repeated stops, offer an added benefit by allowing would-be jihadis to hop off undetected at any number of ports - making efforts to track them more difficult.
Mr St. Hilaire said it wasn't exactly clear yet how many would-be foreign fighters were travelling by cruise ship to reach Syria.
He added that some people have driven all the way from their homes in Europe to the Syrian border to avoid passing through airports.
He was quick to caution that Europe is by no means the only or even the main source of foreign fighters for Syria.
'It's a global threat - 15,000 fighters or more from 81 countries traveling to one specific conflict zone,' he said, noting that that there are some 300 from China alone. 'In order to prevent their travel and identify them, there needs to be greater information-sharing among the region, among national security agencies.'
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.'
This is one of the reasons why the international police body is preparing to expand a pilot programme known as I-Checkit, where airlines share passenger information off Interpol's databases - in the hope 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-radicalise 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 Islamic State, is the chief suspect in a May attack on the Jewish Museum of Brussels that killed four people.