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Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Hinds and Mohammed to meet relatives of Syria detainees

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705 days ago
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Former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, left, Kwesi Atiba and Patrick Edwards leave Whitehall after the meeting on  March 27 with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and members of the National Security Council.

Former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, left, Kwesi Atiba and Patrick Edwards leave Whitehall after the meeting on March 27 with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and members of the National Security Council.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and for­mer House Speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed are ex­pect­ed to meet with rel­a­tives of T&T na­tion­als de­tained in Syr­ia and Iraq. There are more than 105 T&T na­tion­als, in­clud­ing 56 chil­dren, in de­ten­tion cen­tres and refugee camps in Iraq and Syr­ia.

A com­mit­tee head­ed by Mo­hammed that in­cludes Is­lam­ic schol­ar Kwe­si At­i­ba and re­tired diplo­mat Patrick Ed­wards was ap­point­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to act as a li­ai­son be­tween the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty and the gov­ern­ment.

The team met two weeks ago with Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Brown and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter, Fitzger­ald Hinds to dis­cuss the way for­ward.

Mo­hammed and Hinds are open­ing and com­mis­sion­ing a San Fer­nan­do of­fice to­day.

“We are hav­ing a meet­ing with the rel­a­tives of these peo­ple who are abroad in San Fer­nan­do,” Mo­hammed told Guardian Me­dia. “We are com­mis­sion­ing the San Fer­nan­do of­fice. We had to es­tab­lish two of­fices in Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do to con­tin­ue our work, so to­mor­row (to­day) we will be do­ing the San Fer­nan­do of­fice and we ex­pect that the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will send out an in­vi­ta­tion to the me­dia to come.”

He added: “We are an­tic­i­pat­ing over 50 rel­a­tives will be in at­ten­dance at the of­fice.”

Re­spond­ing to re­ports that Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly will be trav­el­ling to Syr­ia on a fact-find­ing mis­sion, Mo­hammed said: “Noth­ing that we are hear­ing is af­fect­ing the work of the com­mit­tee. We are hav­ing our work done at a gov­ern­men­tal and diplo­mat­ic lev­el in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Every­thing we are do­ing is at an of­fi­cial ca­pac­i­ty at the state lev­el and I don’t know about any pri­vate cit­i­zen arrange­ments to go in­to a war-torn coun­try.

“So far quite a large num­ber of the rel­a­tives have come for­ward. They feel it is the on­ly state that could give them any mean­ing­ful as­sis­tance.”

The meet­ing is ex­pect­ed to start at 4.30 pm 9 Court Street, San Fer­nan­do.


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