7 Hrs Ago
In this file photo, Human Rights Watch children’s rights advocacy director Jo Becker, right, speaks during a press conference. At left is Human Rights Watch associate director Terrorism/Counterterrorism Crisis and Conflict Division Letta Tayler. – File photo by Ayanna Kinsale
HUMAN Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to take immediate steps to repatriate more than 90 Trinidad and Tobago nationals, including over 50 children, who remain detained in war-torn camps and prisons in northeast Syria and Iraq.
In a letter addressed to Persad-Bissessar, HRW children’s rights advocacy director Jo Becker commended her past support for repatriation efforts and urged her to translate that advocacy into action now that she holds the nation’s highest office.
“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,” Becker wrote.
Becker said any adults linked to serious crimes can be prosecuted under TT law. “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.
Many of the detainees, including women and children, have been held for more than six years in camps linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). Becker said HRW documented life-threatening conditions at these camps and detention facilities, including inadequate healthcare, clean water, and education. Becker noted 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.
One 17-year-old boy reportedly said he was told he was going to Disneyland when his father took him to Syria in 2014. “I wish I never came here,” he said. “I just want to come back home.”
Becker also highlighted the plight of four Trinidadian women and their seven children imprisoned in Iraq under what HRW called deeply flawed anti-terrorism proceedings. Two children were allegedly separated from their mothers in 2024 and placed in cells with other youth.
She said despite repeated calls from local advocates, including former MP Dinesh Rambally, and a repatriation committee established by former prime minister Keith Rowley in 2023, no concrete action has been taken, Becker said.
“The inaction of the previous Trinidad and Tobago government has allowed its nationals to endure life-threatening conditions for more than six years.
“We had hoped that former prime minister Rowley’s March 2023 appointment of a three-member team, headed by former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, to facilitate the repatriation of Trinidad and Tobago’s nationals from northeast Syria and Iraq, would have resulted in concrete action.
“As you well know, however, that is not the case, leaving Trinidad and Tobago nationals to endure even more suffering.”
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.
Becker said the UN and security experts have urged repatriation as the “only durable solution to the situation in northeast Syria, and warn that the longer these detainees languish in northeast Syria, the greater the risk of death, illness, and radicalisation or recruitment by ISIS.
“Bringing Trinidad and Tobago’s nationals home… is the right choice morally, legally, and strategically,” she said.
Two weekends ago, two children, born to Trinidadian parents, were returned to TT to be placed with their grandparents under the protection of a valid guardianship order issued by the High Court of England and Wales.
Attorney Criston J Williams, whose law firm Quantum Legal has been advocating for the return of Trinidadian nationals from Syria, called for urgent and co-ordinated assistance from the government. He also called for support for those who have returned to TT.