Canada hasn't yet added even 1 of its 'terrorist travellers' to UN sanctions list.

author-image
Meeshika Sharma
New Update
NULL

UN Resolution 2253 encourages all member states to actively submit the names of individuals and entities that support ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Though the Canadian government insists it's using "all available tools" to find, detain and convict citizens who have travelled overseas for the purposes of terrorism, but it hasn't submitted a single name to the UN committee that maintains a sanctions list of international jihadists.publive-image

The government has estimated that about 180 people have left Canada for terrorist purposes and not returned.

British, French, German and American citizens all figure among the 256 individuals on the list. Arab countries have provided the majority of the names, but many other countries including Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Bosnia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Indonesia and the Philippines have also listed citizens. Even the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has a citizen on the list.

Advertisment

But there are no Canadians. Some other countries that have seen citizens leave on jihad, including Sweden and Belgium, have also not responded to Resolution 2253.

When a country lists an individual, he or she is issued a permanent reference number to assist countries in identifying them. Their description, aliases, known addresses and associations, and identity documents are published as Interpol "special notices," with instructions to all states to "prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of these individuals."

The resolution also requires all countries to freeze any assets belonging to individuals on the list.Some Canadians who've joined groups in Iraq and Syria have risen to prominence in the jihadist world, but they still haven't been listed by their own country with the UN.

Public Safety Canada spokesperson Andrew Gowing said that regardless of which names appear on the UN lists,"Canada has a number of domestic tools in place to address terrorism and extremist travellers."

He said Canada maintains its own list of terrorist entities, which helps law enforcement to prosecute terrorists and their supporters. When an entity is put on the list, he said, banks and financial institutions freeze its assets and Canadians are "not allowed to knowingly deal with such assets."

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said many of the Canadians who travelled to Iraq and Syria are now likely to move on to third countries, rather than return to Canada.

canada-news latest-canada-news
Advertisment