LONDON – INTERPOL officials say its biometric databases are proving increasingly important for identifying prospective foreign fighters. But that it needs more assistance from governments and other organisations to tackle the crucial issue.Mark Branchflower, Head of Unit, Fingerprint Unit, Police Forensics Sub-Directorate, INTERPOL General Secretariat, said INTERPOL is trying to understand how recruiting and facilitating networks work, but that prospective fighters “change routes all the time”.”A domestic approach alone will not solve this issue”, he said, adding that while 51 countries have agreed to provide advance passenger information, that only half were doing so.Speaking at the Biometrics 2015 conference in London that its network, he said INTERPOL can alert 190 member countries to suspected foreign fighter cases within an hour.He highlighted the case last October of a militant who came into Greece seeking asylum, but who was then fingerprinted through INTERPOL's systems and linked to a bombing in Russia that killed 15 people.In Mali, a special INTERPOL Incident response team was sent to fingerprint 109 suspected terrorists, subsequently identifying a Tunisian suspected in a major terrorist attack on a gas plant in Algeria.As a result of an operation following the Charlle Hebdo attacks, 35 recovered weapons were linked to a lead in Belgium that stopped an attack just two days later.Branchflower said his body wanted to extend INTERPOL “gateways” linking these databases to the access needed to immigration and police forces at border control.

Also in the news:

Default ThumbnailDeliveroo and Onfido expand partnership Default ThumbnailIngenico Group introduces biometric POS Default ThumbnailLED firms eye mobile iris authentication