Sev­er­al fam­i­lies whose loved ones cur­rent­ly are de­tained in the Syr­i­an refugee camp of Al Hol have ex­pressed ex­treme dis­ap­point­ment over the de­lay­ing of a High Court rul­ing to have their fam­i­ly mem­bers repa­tri­at­ed to T&T.

The de­ci­sion was sched­uled for Wednes­day 31 March 2021.  How­ev­er, the fam­i­lies have been in­formed that the rul­ing will be de­liv­ered in­stead on Mon­day 26 April 2021.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued by their le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Criston J. Williams & Co At­tor­neys-at-Law, the fam­i­lies lament the fact that de­spite their best ef­forts—in­clud­ing a will­ing­ness to cov­er costs in­volved in repa­tri­at­ing their loved ones—they con­tin­ue to be dis­ap­point­ed at every turn.

Near­ly 100 na­tion­als from Trinidad and To­ba­go, the wives and chil­dren of men sus­pect­ed of fight­ing for the Is­lam­ic State, cur­rent­ly are held at the Al Hol refugee camp.

“The area has re­cent­ly be­come a con­flict zone, mak­ing their sit­u­a­tion even more dev­as­tat­ing and trau­mat­ic, and our fears even more se­vere,” the fam­i­ly mem­bers say, “but our gov­ern­ment seems to be un­fazed and un­con­cerned while their lives hang in the bal­ance.”

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment is­sued by the fam­i­lies, through their at­tor­ney Criston J. Williams…

Re­sponse to the Ad­journ­ment of High Court Rul­ing on Dis­placed Women and Chil­dren in Syr­ia

For months we fam­i­lies of Trinidad and To­ba­go have been wait­ing with acute an­tic­i­pa­tion and anx­i­ety for a High Court rul­ing sched­uled for March 31. On this date, we prayed that the Court would fi­nal­ly al­low pass­ports and oth­er trav­el doc­u­ments to be grant­ed to the women and chil­dren of Trinidad and To­ba­go, our loved ones, who are cur­rent­ly liv­ing in the squalor of the Syr­i­an refugee camp of Al Hol. Our hopes for re­lief were cal­lous­ly dashed with the news that the de­ci­sion has been moved to April 26th 2021. The Court has stat­ed that they re­quire more time to de­liv­er the de­ci­sion.  

The dis­ap­point­ment we feel is acute. Again and again we are see­ing our fam­i­ly mem­bers be­ing treat­ed neg­li­gent­ly by their own home­land. Sev­en­ty of our lit­tle ones as well as twen­ty-four women, many of them moth­ers, have been en­dur­ing a sor­did ex­is­tence in Al Hol, a place flagged as one of the worst refugee camps in the world. They en­dure ex­treme con­di­tions and poor nu­tri­tion and are ex­posed to dis­ease. Phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse is a re­al dan­ger. The area has re­cent­ly be­come a con­flict zone, mak­ing their sit­u­a­tion even more dev­as­tat­ing and trau­mat­ic, and our fears even more se­vere. We can­not rest easy un­til our fam­i­lies are back home, but our gov­ern­ment seems to be un­fazed and un­con­cerned while their lives hang in the bal­ance.

We are will­ing to agree to a civ­il con­tract for the repa­tri­a­tion process. We have agreed to cov­er the re­quired costs. We are more than ready to com­ply with the nec­es­sary con­di­tions to al­low our loved ones to be merged ap­pro­pri­ate­ly back in­to so­ci­ety, but our ef­forts seem point­less.  

Once more we ask when will the gov­ern­ment act? When will the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty make good on their promise to look in­to this mat­ter? When will our loved ones be res­cued from this trau­ma? When will we be able to hold our lit­tle ones in our arms again? In the mean­time, we con­tin­ue to live un­der the shad­ow of frus­tra­tion, dis­il­lu­sion­ment and acute anx­i­ety.

Criston J. Williams & Co. At­tor­neys-at-Law