RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Head of the Repa­tri­a­tion Com­mit­tee, Nizam Mo­hammed, says T&T is ready for repa­tri­a­tion and could bring home strand­ed women and chil­dren lan­guish­ing in north­east­ern Syr­ia by Oc­to­ber at the ear­li­est if the gov­ern­ment ful­ly co-op­er­ates and fa­cil­i­tates the process.

His com­ments came days af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young said he would re­quest a re­port on repa­tri­a­tion ef­forts af­ter be­ing asked by re­porters why no one had been repa­tri­at­ed yet, fol­low­ing calls from the Unit­ed Na­tions to ad­dress the hu­man­i­tar­i­an is­sue.

Young, who was at­tend­ing Eid cel­e­bra­tions, said the ver­i­fi­ca­tion of these na­tion­als was a com­plex process.

How­ev­er, speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Mo­hammed re­vealed over 50 chil­dren have been iden­ti­fied along with 25 moth­ers.

“With­in six months of our ap­point­ment, we had col­lect­ed enough in­for­ma­tion to be­gin the process in earnest. We sub­mit­ted re­ports reg­u­lar­ly and had full co-op­er­a­tion from the Prime Min­is­ter, as we re­port­ed di­rect­ly to him. But once the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty was trans­ferred to a few of his min­is­ters, progress came to a stand­still,” Mo­hammed re­vealed.

He added that with re­newed in­ter­est from Young, the com­mit­tee was pre­pared to re­vive its ef­forts.

“If we get the co-op­er­a­tion that is re­quired, we are con­fi­dent that we can make head­way. Since 2019, we have been wait­ing for some kind of pro­posed leg­is­la­tion. If we are giv­en the fa­cil­i­ties and sup­port, we can have peo­ple well on their way home with­in six to nine months,” Mo­hammed re­vealed.

He ex­plained that the com­mit­tee’s role is to lo­cate and pre­pare the in­di­vid­u­als for trav­el, while Task Force Nightin­gale, es­tab­lished by Young since 2018, was re­spon­si­ble for their re­cep­tion up­on ar­rival.

“We have done our part. These women and chil­dren are in makeshift camps and they are suf­fer­ing. We have been side­lined. We are not fight­ing the gov­ern­ment; we are sim­ply ask­ing for co­op­er­a­tion on a se­ri­ous hu­man­i­tar­i­an is­sue,” Mo­hammed added.

Mean­while, for­mer PNM Sen­a­tor and hu­man rights ac­tivist Nafeesa Mo­hammed, who has been ad­vo­cat­ing for the repa­tri­a­tion of these na­tion­als, crit­i­cised the de­lays.

“We are in an elec­tion sea­son, and peo­ple are pol­i­tick­ing. Young was a min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter. He said they would bring back our cit­i­zens, and Team Nightin­gale was in place. Yet, from 2019 to now, not a sin­gle child or woman has been repa­tri­at­ed,” she said.

She added that the ver­i­fi­ca­tion process had al­ready been com­plet­ed.

“There is a ver­i­fi­ca­tion bun­dle that con­tains pass­port bio-da­ta, birth cer­tifi­cates, and oth­er nec­es­sary in­for­ma­tion. Thir­ty-three of the 72 chil­dren were born in Syr­ia, but their moth­ers are Trinida­di­an cit­i­zens. Most of the fa­thers have been killed. These chil­dren are in need of our pro­tec­tion,” she said.

Mo­hammed called on State of­fi­cials to stop fo­cus­ing on the com­plex­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion and in­stead take ac­tion.

“This is a hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis. In­stead of crim­i­nal­is­ing these chil­dren, we need to recog­nise that mod­ern child pro­tec­tion mech­a­nisms ex­ist. We have iden­ti­fied 10 ge­o­graph­i­cal ar­eas where these chil­dren and their rel­a­tives are from, in­clud­ing Diego Mar­tin, Bel­mont, Beetham, Barataria, Kel­ly Vil­lage, War­renville, Long­denville, Clax­ton Bay and the Boos Ja­maat in Rio Claro,” she said.

She al­so not­ed that lo­gis­tics for the repa­tri­a­tion process were out­lined in a plan since 2020.

The Unit­ed Na­tions has re­peat­ed­ly urged coun­tries to repa­tri­ate their cit­i­zens, es­pe­cial­ly chil­dren, who re­main in dire con­di­tions in Syr­i­an camps. The na­tion­als were drawn to ISIS dur­ing its peak in the mid-2010s, af­ter be­ing lured by a promise of a utopi­an Is­lam­ic state and fi­nan­cial in­cen­tives. Some trav­elled with their fam­i­lies re­gard­ing it as a re­li­gious du­ty. Af­ter ISIS lost ter­ri­to­ry, the men were killed and the women and chil­dren were left strand­ed in makeshift camps in north­east­ern Syr­ia.