By Sue-Ann Wayow
TRINIDAD and Tobago nationals suffering in North-East Syria are willing to face whatever action is taken against them if they get the chance to come back home.
Some 90 nationals mostly women and children are begging Government to assist in their repatriation through the New York-based Human Rights Watch Group.
On Tuesday, two US visiting officials from the Group Advocacy Director, Children’s Rights Division Jo Becker and associate crisis and conflict director Letta Tayler launched their report titled Trinidad and Tobago: Bring Home Nationals from Northeast Syria at Kapok Hotel in Port of Spain.
The report was the first step in the engagement process for the orderly safe return of Trinidad and Tobago nationals from the war torn middle eastern Islamic country, they said.
Having spoken to some detained, Tayler said they have realised “they made a terrible mistake.”
She said, “Trinidad has laws on the books to prosecute adults if they commit serious crimes… all victims have a right to see justice served. The Trinidadian detainees who I have spoken with include three adults who went to northeast Syria as adults, two women and one man. They sounded broken when we spoke to them. They said they would be willing to serve time if their government would just take them back and let their children restart their lives in their homeland.”
It was also revealed that in the last four years not one Trinidadian returned home from Syria.
When asked about the cost to have them return home, she said she was not aware of the actual cost but it would cost less than keeping the detainees in North-East Syria.
“All of the Trinis can fit into one plane and the US military has repeatedly offered to extract the trinis and bring them home,” Tayley added.
According to their information, some 30 men have already died in combat and there were about eight men remaining to be repatriated.
Of the more than 90 Trinidadians detained in Syria, some 21 are women including a grandmother and one who lost her legs and at least 56 children most of whom were under the age of 12.
Most of the Trinidadians were detained in late 2018 and early 2019 by US backed Syrian forces fighting Islamic State (ISIS) in northeast Syria.
They are currently held in makeshift camps that activists say were dangerous and lack food, water, medical care and education which was a serious human rights violation.
“The real risk is not bringing the children home. It is leaving them in the camp,” the activists said.
Becker said, “These children should have the chance to go home, go to school, and enjoy their childhood instead of suffering because of their parents’ decisions.”
Of all the letters written to Ministry of National Security, Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM affairs, while letters were acknowledged with brief responses, there was no substantial information provided by Government to state exactly how they plan to deal with the issue that is of grave humanitarian concern.
Four questions were asked in a letter to the Ministry of National Security in December 2022 to which no answers were given.
These questions asked for the government’s official policy regarding repatriation of those detained in Syria, according to government’s information – how many women, men and children were detained, government’s plans and timetables regarding repatriation if any and what was government’s position regarding the civil contract presented by family members.
The agreement is a three tier proposal involving family members, government and detainees for their reintegration back into the local society.
Becker also said that to date, Trinidad and Tobago has not even responded to the United Nations who wrote to 55 countries in January 2022 asking governments to repatriate their citizens fighting in Syria.
She said the Human Rights Watch group extended deadlines for the Trinidad and Tobago government with the hope that meetings and meaningful correspondence could be held but to no avail.
“ We would still be very happy to work with the government,” Becker said adding that the organisation was not faulting the government in any way.
Since October 2022, more countries have been making attempts to repatriate citizens and different governments have taken varying approaches in dealing with their citizens including Barbados and the US, they said.
There was also the suggestion that a brief special law chamber could be established to deal with those matters specifically so as to expedite the judicial process.
For the US, repatriated adults have been tried and prosecuted and the children placed in either care of relatives or foster homes.
The United Kingdom (UK) has stripped those individuals of their citizenships and was now becoming open to receiving them home.
Canada was now too beginning to open their borders to citizens who would have left, the activists said.
Becker and Tayler arrived over the weekend and are expected to leave Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday evening.
