Trinidad and Tobago’s newly elected prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, should act quickly to repatriate more than 90 of the country’s nationals, including at least 50 children, who remain unlawfully detained in northeast Syria and Iraq for alleged association with the Islamic State (ISIS).
On April 25, two Trinidadian children who spent years in northeast Syria were finally reunited with their family in Trinidad and Tobago. They are the first of the country’s nationals to return home since 2019. Approximately 40 other countries have repatriated more than 12,000 nationals from northeast Syria in that time. As opposition leader, Persad-Bissessar had repeatedly called on Trinidad and Tobago’s previous government to repatriate women and children from the region.
Most of the Trinidadians were rounded up in late 2018 or early 2019 by the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as they toppled the last remnants of ISIS in northeast Syria, where approximately 42,000 foreigners from about 50 countries are still being held as ISIS suspects and family members.
Most of the Trinidadian detainees are children who never chose to live under ISIS. Many were taken to Syria by parents who sought to join ISIS or live in the “caliphate.” Thirty or more were born in Syria. Not one Trinidadian being held in northeast Syria has been charged with a crime or had access to a judge to challenge their detention, which is unlawful.
During visits to the camps and other detention centers in northeast Syria where most Trinidadians are held, Human Rights Watch found life-threatening and deeply degrading conditions. Those we interviewed said that more than anything, they wanted to return home.
In March 2023, former Prime Minister Keith Rowley appointed a team, headed by former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, to facilitate the repatriation of Trinidad and Tobago’s nationals from northeast Syria and Iraq, but Mohammed has accused the government of deliberately obstructing the committee’s work.
Human Rights Watch has found that many children from other countries repatriated from the camps in northeast Syria are faring remarkably well. There is every reason to believe that Trinidadian children can also reintegrate successfully.
The Trinidadians still held in northeast Syria and Iraq have waited long enough. With her election, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar can finally bring all detained nationals back home to resume their lives.
