A coordinated CARICOM clampdown on returning foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) – including targeting their assets – is being prepared for approval at next month’s heads of government meeting in Grenada.
In the next three weeks, CARICOM leaders will move to finalise plans for a CARICOM arrest warrant for FTFs and sharing of recovered assets, as well as regional anti-terrorism legislation. The latter will be based on Trinidad and Tobago’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation, the Trinidad Guardian reported.
“The question for the region (on terrorism) isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’,” Trinidad’s National Security Minister Edmund Dillon warned.
CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) executive director Francis Forbes said the agency and the United States are tracking “several hundred” people from the Caribbean and South American who have gone to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror network.
CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque, who said no country was immune to terrorism, added the July summit will discuss the draft plan for the region concerning a CARICOM arrest warrant and sharing of recovered assets of FTFs.
“Our region can’t afford complacency – one act of terrorism in one state will resonate and have implications across the region,” La Rocque added.
