Foreign Terrorist Fighter Financing

In early November, a B.C. judge placed a terrorism peace bond on Kimberly Polman, a woman who was repatriated to Canada last year from Syria where she provided support to ISIL. Polman is a foreign terrorist fighter (FTF)  -- an individual who travels to conflict zones to engage in terrorist activities.  While the foreign fighter phenomenon isn’t new, FTFs came into focus in 2013 with the expansion of ISIL’s territorial control and the group’s enhanced recruitment efforts. The UN reports that by 2015, approximately 40,000 individuals from over 120 countries travelled to Iraq and Syria as foreign fighters. While some travellers go to participate in armed conflict, others like Polman support terrorist groups by working in medical units or providing weapons training. Regardless of their exact roles, FTFs need money to purchase transportation to the conflict zone and sometimes require further resources once they arrive. In the case of Polman, she obtained gift cards from the charity ‘National Zakat Fund’ and then subsequently sold them to her son to fund her trip.

Keep reading about how other FTFs fund their travel and living abroad.