Hu­man Rights Watch (HRW) is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to take ur­gent ac­tion to repa­tri­ate more than 90 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als, in­clud­ing over 50 chil­dren, who are de­tained in camps and pris­ons in north­east Syr­ia and Iraq fol­low­ing the col­lapse of the Is­lam­ic State (ISIS).

In a let­ter dat­ed May 1, 2025, HRW praised Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pri­or calls for repa­tri­a­tion while in op­po­si­tion and urged her new ad­min­is­tra­tion to act swift­ly.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go has left its chil­dren to suf­fer in deeply de­grad­ing, of­ten life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions sim­ply be­cause their par­ents made wrong de­ci­sions,” said Jo Beck­er, Chil­dren’s Rights Ad­vo­ca­cy Di­rec­tor at Hu­man Rights Watch.

“These chil­dren are vic­tims who de­serve a sec­ond chance, and their own gov­ern­ment has the pow­er to give them that.”

HRW not­ed that many of the de­tainees, par­tic­u­lar­ly the chil­dren, are fac­ing ap­palling con­di­tions in the Roj and al-Hol camps in Syr­ia, where they are ex­posed to poor san­i­ta­tion, lack of health­care, and on­go­ing vi­o­lence.

Beck­er em­pha­sised, “Most of these chil­dren are un­der the age of 12. They’ve lived through unimag­in­able trau­ma, and they need ed­u­ca­tion, psy­choso­cial sup­port, and the love and care of their fam­i­lies back home.”

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so ac­knowl­edged the work of for­mer Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, who has con­tin­u­al­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for the re­turn of these na­tion­als. HRW urged that the repa­tri­a­tion process in­clude re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and rein­te­gra­tion pro­grammes, and that adults sus­pect­ed of se­ri­ous crimes be pros­e­cut­ed in line with na­tion­al law.

Ac­cord­ing to HRW, its ex­ten­sive field re­search con­duct­ed be­tween 2019 and 2022 showed that women and chil­dren in the camps face con­stant threats from oth­er de­tainees and guards. It said in in­ter­views, many women re­called they had been lured to Syr­ia un­der false pre­tences or co­er­cion and now live in fear, un­able to re­turn home.

HRW de­tailed how one 17-year-old Trinida­di­an boy re­count­ed how his fa­ther tricked him in­to trav­el­ling to Syr­ia, claim­ing they were go­ing to Dis­ney­land.

“It’s not my fault; it’s my fa­ther’s fault. I wish I nev­er came here to Syr­ia. I just want to come back home,” he told HRW.

Beck­er warned that in­ac­tion could have long-term con­se­quences: “Leav­ing cit­i­zens strand­ed in these camps in­creas­es the risk of rad­i­cal­i­sa­tion, abuse, and con­tin­ued cy­cles of vi­o­lence. Every day that goes by is an­oth­er day of child­hood lost.”

HRW has urged the Gov­ern­ment to pri­ori­tise the re­turn of chil­dren, women, and those not sus­pect­ed of crim­i­nal of­fences, stress­ing the im­por­tance of a hu­mane and law­ful res­o­lu­tion.