Sabbagh asserts foreign-backed terrorist groups have perpetrated all forms of organized crime in Syria

VIENNA, (ST)_ The Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations Office in Vienna, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, has asserted that Syria is party in most international instruments that provides for fighting against organized crime and it is keen on updating national laws to cope with these laws.

 

Addressing the 10th session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations convention against transnational organized crime, Sabbagh said the Syrian government issued in the past years a bundle of laws to confront organized crime.

 

“The Syrian national committee for fighting trafficking in persons has prepared a plan that aims to draw a comprehensive policy to prevent trafficking in persons from 2020 to 2022. The plan is based on disseminating awareness, protecting victims, offering help to victims, international cooperation and building partnerships,” he clarified.

 

Sabbagh underscored the Syria attaches great importance to cooperation with the UN office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) in Vienna and it highly appreciates the office’s support for member countries.

 

He invited the UNODC to visit Syria in order to inspect the situation and to propose ways to activate joint cooperation.

 

Sabbagh made it clear that a huge number of terrorists and criminals have entered Syria over the past years coming from many world countries with the support of regional and international parties that have provided them with money, arms and sophisticated telecommunication devices.

 

“Those terrorists and criminals have perpetrated all forms of organized crimes including trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation and destroying and looting Syrian antiquities,” he stressed, pointing out that terrorist groups looted over 900 archeological sites.

 

Sabbagh emphasized that the coercive economic measures being imposed by the EU and US on Syria have caused the displacement of people to refugees camps in nearby countries and increased trafficking in persons.

 

He called for drawing up a serious international plan to protect Syrians, who are living in refugees camps, and to help bring them back to their homeland and to lift the illegal measures that hinder the insurance of living conditions to them .

 

“Activating the role of the UN in fighting organized crime necessitates collective responsibility from all member countries and enhancing international cooperation,” Sabbagh concluded.

 

Basma Qaddour