The US-based Hu­man Rights Watch (HRW) is call­ing on the new Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment to take im­me­di­ate steps to repa­tri­ate more than 90 na­tion­als—in­clud­ing over 50 chil­dren—who re­main de­tained in war-torn camps and pris­ons in north­east Syr­ia and Iraq.

“We urge you to act as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to bring home all de­tained Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als for re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and rein­te­gra­tion, pri­ori­tis­ing the re­turns of the most vul­ner­a­ble, in­clud­ing chil­dren,” HRW chil­dren’s rights ad­vo­ca­cy di­rec­tor, Jo Beck­er, wrote in a let­ter to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Beck­er said any adults in Syr­ia and Iraq linked to se­ri­ous crimes can be pros­e­cut­ed un­der Trinidad and To­ba­go laws.

“Your swift ac­tion can close this trou­bled chap­ter for Trinidad and To­ba­go and al­low these in­di­vid­u­als to be re­uni­fied with their fam­i­lies and re­build their lives,” Beck­er said.

In 2024, the in­ter­na­tion­al non-gov­ern­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tion that con­ducts re­search and ad­vo­ca­cy on hu­man rights, said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment should heed the re­newed call by the Unit­ed Na­tions’ top coun­tert­er­ror­ism ex­pert to bring home all its na­tion­als de­tained in north­east Syr­ia for al­leged as­so­ci­a­tion with the Is­lam­ic State,

HRW said then that the UN made the ex­pert’s find­ings pub­lic on De­cem­ber 18, 2023, af­ter the UN ex­pert, Fion­nu­ala Ní Aoláin, vis­it­ed locked camps and oth­er de­ten­tion cen­tres in north­east Syr­ia where Unit­ed States -backed, re­gion­al forces are hold­ing an es­ti­mat­ed 90 Trinida­di­ans, in­clud­ing at least 21 women and 56 chil­dren.

The Trinida­di­ans are among more than 55,000 Syr­i­ans and for­eign­ers from dozens of coun­tries, most of them chil­dren, de­tained in camps and pris­ons for al­leged ISIS ties. Most have been de­tained since at least 2019.

None of the de­tained Trinida­di­ans have been charged with a crime or had ac­cess to a judge to chal­lenge their de­ten­tion. Most are chil­dren who were born in the de­ten­tion camps or tak­en to Syr­ia by their par­ents and nev­er chose to live un­der ISIS.

In De­cem­ber last year, the for­mer speak­er of the House of As­sem­bly, Nizam Mo­hammed, who chaired an ad­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee on repa­tri­a­tion cre­at­ed in March 2023, said the pan­el had not re­ceived re­sources or even re­spons­es from the gov­ern­ment to its repa­tri­a­tion pro­pos­als.

Beck­er said HRW doc­u­ment­ed life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions at the camps and de­ten­tion fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing in­ad­e­quate health­care, clean wa­ter, and ed­u­ca­tion. She said that in­ter­views with de­tained na­tion­als re­vealed har­row­ing ex­pe­ri­ences, such as chil­dren hid­ing from sex­u­al preda­tors and youth be­ing mis­led in­to trav­el­ing to Syr­ia un­der false pre­tences.

Beck­er said de­spite re­peat­ed calls from lo­cal ad­vo­cates, no con­crete ac­tion has been tak­en.

“The in­ac­tion of the pre­vi­ous Trinidad and To­ba­go gov­ern­ment has al­lowed its na­tion­als to en­dure life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions for more than six years,” Beck­er said.

“We had hoped that for­mer prime min­is­ter (Dr. Kei­th) Row­ley’s March 2023 ap­point­ment of a three-mem­ber team … to fa­cil­i­tate the repa­tri­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s na­tion­als from north­east Syr­ia and Iraq, would have re­sult­ed in con­crete ac­tion,” she wrote.

“As you well know, how­ev­er, that is not the case, leav­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als to en­dure even more suf­fer­ing,” she added.

Beck­er said at least 39 oth­er coun­tries have repa­tri­at­ed more than 12,000 of their na­tion­als from Syr­ia and a 2022 HRW study on the rein­te­gra­tion of re­turned chil­dren in Eu­rope and Asia found that many of them were ad­just­ing well.

Last month, two chil­dren, born to Trinida­di­an par­ents, were re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go to be placed with their grand­par­ents un­der the pro­tec­tion of a valid guardian­ship or­der is­sued by the High Court of Eng­land and Wales. —PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)