Ot­to Car­ring­ton

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.