At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing a Syr­ia-born boy say he is, in fact, a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go. They are deny­ing state­ments made by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly in the Sen­ate on Tues­day, that the boy’s par­ents need to reg­u­larise his im­mi­gra­tion sta­tus.

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter made the call as she de­fend­ed the de­ci­sion of schools not to en­rol the boy, say­ing they were fol­low­ing pro­to­cols.

The boy was one-year-old when he came to Trinidad with his par­ents, who had gone to join the Is­lam­ic State of Iran and Syr­ia (ISIS).

Quan­tum Le­gal, who is rep­re­sent­ing the fam­i­ly, has chal­lenged the State on the boy’s sta­tus, say­ing he is a cit­i­zen of this coun­try through parent­age. The law firm said the boy, who is now nine, has been grant­ed cit­i­zen­ship.

At­tor­ney Criston J Williams said, “From Quan­tum’s point of view, it’s a bit un­for­tu­nate that the good­ly min­is­ter has found her­self in a po­si­tion where the in­for­ma­tion that she has placed in the pub­lic do­main does not com­port with Quan­tum’s records. It sim­ply would not com­port with the court’s records, nor should it com­port with the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty records. How­ev­er, I ac­tu­al­ly don’t blame her.”

Williams showed Guardian Me­dia the boy’s cit­i­zen reg­is­tra­tion doc­u­ment, which was grant­ed as a Cer­tifi­cate of Reg­is­tra­tion of Mi­nor un­der Sec­tion 8(1) or (2) of the Cit­i­zen­ship of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go Act 1976.

In Oc­to­ber 2015, the boy and his moth­er were repa­tri­at­ed to T&T from Turkey. The moth­er had lived for two years in ISIS-con­trolled ter­ri­to­ry, where the boy was born.

Last year, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley set up a repa­tri­a­tion com­mit­tee led by for­mer House Speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed to as­sist in re­turn­ing na­tion­als cur­rent­ly de­tained in Syr­ia and Iraq.

In Feb­ru­ary last year, an In­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion, Hu­man Rights Watch, called on the T&T Gov­ern­ment to repa­tri­ate its cit­i­zens from camps in Syr­ia, say­ing there are more than 90 na­tion­als, in­clud­ing at least 56 chil­dren, in refugee camps and de­ten­tion cen­tres there.

Quan­tum Le­gal has called on Gov­ern­ment to work with them, as they are al­so deal­ing di­rect­ly with those de­tained in Syr­ia and Iraq, to pre­vent mis­in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic do­main.