Migrant Flow From Afghanistan, Syria Brings Crime To SCO States - Russian Security Service

The situation with crime in the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) continues to worsen as the number of migrants coming from Syria and Afghanistan to the SCO grows, First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Sergey Smirnov said on Friday

TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2019) The situation with crime in the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) continues to worsen as the number of migrants coming from Syria and Afghanistan to the SCO grows, First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Sergey Smirnov said on Friday.

"The growing number of migrants from Afghanistan and Syria aggravates drastically the crime situation in the SCO states, and the organization's relevant bodies have synchronized their activities [to tackle this issue]," Smirnov said after a meeting of the Council of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent.

Smirnov added that the close cooperation between the security services of SCO member states had resulted in the detention of a significant number of terrorists who had returned from Syria and plotted terrorist attacks.

The security services have a unified database that contains information on 4,500 such militants.

Smirnov also noted that the strengthened positions of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) in the north of Afghanistan remained the main threat to regional security.

The SCO consists of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are observers, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka have the status of partners.