Senior Reporter
otto.carrington@cnc3.co.tt
Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally has postponed his fact finding trip to Syria where several T&T nationals, including children are being held in refugee camps and detention centres. Instead, he plans to travel to the United Kingdom next month where he will meet with representatives of internatonal NGOs to discuss the logistics of the verification and identification exercises to be done before the T&T nationals can return home.
Rambally had planned to visit Syria because several of the detainees there are from his constituency. He recalled that in February officials of the T&T mission in Geneva told the United Nations they were unable to deploy personnel to Syria for verification, identification, or investigations.
“In response to this impasse and at the request of constituents and various members of the Islamic community, I have decided to engage in the verification and identification process for the 64 children and 22 adult primary caregivers in collaboration with international NGOs. This initiative primarily serves the interests of my constituents and is also in the public interest,” he explained
Rambally said since a Repatriation Committee led by former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed and including retired diplomat Patrick Edwards and Islamoc leader Kwesi Atiba has been appointed, it would be counterproductive to duplicate those efforts at this stage.
“I am on the public record for encouraging families to attend the Repatriation Committee’s new headquarters to provide all the information regarding their loved ones in conflict zones,” he said.
However, he said, after three months the committee has only be able to complete the dataset of the detainees.
“Consequently, the logical next step is to conduct the verification of that information, and we eagerly await an announcement regarding the broad timelines for this process.
“While we are giving the Government every opportunity to implement meaningful steps towards achieving the legitimate aim of repatriation, we remain mindful of the SSA report indicating a strategy to frustrate the families seeking the return of their loved ones. We witnessed a similar situation in 2018 with the creation of Team Nightingale, which was under-resourced and failed to make progress in this matter,” he said.
Rambally said he is determined to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself and a situation where “after collating the same information already provided to Nightingale, the government reiterates its lack of resources for deployment.”