Bishop advocates doubling of efforts to tackle ‘doubled’ terror fighters overseas

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has shown her disappointment on the increasing number of Australian terror fighters overseas at the Global Counterterrorism Forum held in New York on Sunday.

U.S. State Secretary John Kerry revealed in the event that the count of foreign terror fighters in the Middle East has increased from 20,000 to 30,000. Terrorists are being made to join terror groups from at least 100 different countries, including 120 Australians in Iraq and Syria who were supporting Daesh and other terrorist groups, Bishop spoke from the UN General Assembly on Monday.

Bishop said it was the first time when she saw such a huge increase in the count of foreign terror fighters in the Middle East. “I found the number I reported from here [General Assembly] 12 months ago has doubled,” she said. She added that the numbers have doubled in the last 12 months in spite of cancelled passports and enhanced intelligence operations across Australia.

The forum, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, was attended by 29 other states, including the U.K., U.S., Canada and New Zealand. It has been has been working for four years to figure out relevant ways to counter terrorists’ recruitment and implement national laws to ensure proper dealing with terrorism issues.

The first step to deal with the terror-driven situation would involve the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. “We have to work very hard with families and communities and schools to first identify those who are vulnerable and intervene if a form of radicalisation is underway,” AAP reported Bishop as saying.

Bishop indicated the threat the world will be posed to when the prisoners charged with terrorism will be realised from Asian prisons. "A significant number of prisoners in Indonesian prisons who have been convicted of terrorist-related activities will be released. It runs to the hundreds,” she said as quoted by the ABC. She suggested rehabilitation for terrorists to decrease the threat to some extent.

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