A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said, of the almost 100 TT nationals being detained in dire conditions in camps in northeast Syria, 56 are children. The group is calling on the government to bring the children and their mothers back to TT as a matter of urgency.
HRW counter-terrorism associate director Letta Tayler said there were approximately 99 TT nationals being held in camps by US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. She was speaking at the launch of the HRW report Trinidad and Tobago: Bring Home Nationals From Northeast Syria at the Kapok Hotel, Port of Spain, on Tuesday.
“We are calling on the TT government to promptly repatriate their citizens. If they can’t take everyone at the same time, they should focus on the most vulnerable, the women and the children. The adults can be prosecuted if necessary.”
The report said there are 56 children and 21 women being held in two camps, and 13 males, including a teenage boy, in detention centres.
A 17-year-old boy who was taken to Syria in 2014 said, “My father lied to me – he told me that we were going to Disneyland. It’s not my fault, it’s my father’s fault. I wish I never came here in Syria. I just want to come back home, you know.”
HRW children’s right division advocacy director Jo Becker said a survey of over 100 children worldwide who had been repatriated to their home countries from detention camps showed that they had reintegrated into their societies well.
“They are facing extreme hardships, as children in the camp have died in tent fires, drowned in sewage pits, been hit and killed by water trucks, and hundreds have died from treatable illnesses.
"Mothers hide them in their tents to protect them from sexual predators, abusive camp guards, and ISIS recruiters and fighters. Male children as young as 12 are taken away to detention centres where they are held indefinitely, without contact with their families.”
Becker said research had shown that the sooner children were repatriated, the easier it was for them to reintegrate into society.
She noted that there had been cases of children who had returned to TT being unable to access education and health care because of a lack of documents. She said that was not unique to TT, and the organisation would be looking into those cases.
Returning nationals can face TT criminal courts
Tayler addressed concerns expressed by the population, including why people who had gone to fight with ISIS should be repatriated when there was already a crime wave in TT.
“Most of the Trinidadians are children, they did not choose to go to Syria. There are only about eight men detained in Syria from TT who went over as adults, and only five youths who went over as young children. Most of the women went over as adults, but most of them, like the children, are also victims of ISIS.
“We believe TT has the capacity to manage this population. TT has laws on the books to prosecute adults if they commit serious crimes. If there w
