"As well as the domestic measures we have introduced, such as the power to seize passports, these sanctions are a powerful tool – freezing an individual’s assets and imposing a global travel ban on them… It also sends a clear deterrent message to those thinking of going to fight for ISIL. We will continue to consider whether more individuals should be subjected to the sanctions," a Downing Street spokesman said Monday, as quoted by the Guardian newspaper.
The United Nations approved the measure on Monday.
The British nationals on the restrictions list have been sanctioned due to activities such as recruiting new people to join ISIL, providing information on how to get to Syria, urging people to carry out bomb attacks in the United Kingdom and pledging to conduct attacks in the country.
The last time the UK government made a request to put one of its citizens on UN blacklist was in 2006, when an operative of al-Qaeda was sanctioned, according to the Guardian.
ISIL is an extremist group that been taking over large parts of Syria and Iraq since 2014. The group is notorious for recruiting members from Western countries via social media.
In May, Scotland Yard estimated that more than 700 potential British terrorist suspects had traveled to Syria to join rebel groups there, many of whom have subsequently returned to the United Kingdom.
