U.S. Says Efforts to Stop Foreign Fighters Fall Way Short

World governments are not doing enough to stop their citizens joining jihadists in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. ambassador said ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday to discuss the threat.

The 15-member council is meeting with interior ministers for the first time after a U.N. study showed a rise in the number of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) worldwide.

"We’re not seeing nearly enough global action to criminalize and actually prevent the movement of FTFs to and from conflict zones," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said.

"We need countries to step up by creating new laws if they haven't, enforce laws on the books where they have them, and take concrete steps to make it possible to stop FTF travel."

A study by a U.N. panel of experts showed a 71 percent increase in the number of foreign fighters between mid-2014 to March 2015. 

"The rate of flow is higher than it has ever been historically and is mainly focused on movement into the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq, with a growing problem also evident in Libya," the report said.

Around 25,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries have joined the ranks of local armed groups, according to the report.

The Security Council adopted a resolution in September that called on governments to make it a serious crime for their nationals to enlist as a foreign fighter in such groups. 

Nevertheless, large numbers of foreign fighters are traveling from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia, and the U.N. says that there are new trails of jihadists leaving the Maldives, Finland, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as from some sub-Saharan Africa countries.