T&T unveils repatriation plan for nationals in Middle East camps

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Mus­lim fam­i­lies’ up­dat­ed plan to repa­tri­ate their rel­a­tives from Mid­dle East refugee camps out­lines mea­sures to as­sess whether re­turnees pose se­cu­ri­ty risks, ad­dress men­tal health con­cerns, and re­quires a con­tract oblig­at­ing com­pli­ance with Trinidad and To­ba­go’s se­cu­ri­ty pro­to­cols, with penal­ties for vi­o­la­tions in­clud­ing im­pris­on­ment.

At­tor­ney Nafeesa Mo­hammed shared the plan yes­ter­day fol­low­ing com­ments last Thurs­day by Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein, deputy chair­man of the UNC Gov­ern­ment’s repa­tri­a­tion team, on the is­sue.

Lo­cal­ly based fam­i­lies of na­tion­als in the camps have crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment’s slow progress in ful­fill­ing its elec­tion cam­paign pledge to repa­tri­ate the group, which pri­mar­i­ly com­pris­es chil­dren and 25 women. The na­tion­als have been de­tained in camps since the 2018 de­feat of the ISIS ter­ror­ist group. Be­tween 2012 and 2015, around 130 T&T na­tion­als trav­elled over­seas to join ISIS. The US Cen­tral Com­mand (CENT­COM) has urged coun­tries to repa­tri­ate their cit­i­zens to pre­vent rad­i­cal­i­sa­tion in the camps.

Gov­ern­ment sources said one key is­sue is ver­i­fy­ing that those seek­ing repa­tri­a­tion are in­deed T&T na­tion­als. Mo­hammed, who has spear­head­ed ef­forts to re­turn the group, said: “The repa­tri­a­tion plan we had in 2020 has been up­dat­ed. We need to col­lab­o­rate to end our na­tion­als’ hard­ships and suf­fer­ing.”

The plan adopts a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary ap­proach, which fam­i­lies say is es­sen­tial for repa­tri­a­tion. It bal­ances se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns with hu­man­i­tar­i­an con­sid­er­a­tions and en­sures psy­cho-so­cial and oth­er rel­e­vant as­sess­ments are con­duct­ed so that ap­pro­pri­ate in­ter­ven­tions can be im­ple­ment­ed in the best in­ter­ests of re­turnees. The plan pro­vides de­tailed guid­ance on as­sess­ing and man­ag­ing men­tal health is­sues.

It notes strong T&T-US mil­i­tary co­op­er­a­tion, and that the US Em­bassy in T&T has of­fered sup­port in fa­cil­i­tat­ing repa­tri­a­tion. T&T’s se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus, in­clud­ing in­ves­tiga­tive agen­cies, will de­ter­mine risk lev­els for all in­di­vid­u­als, in­clud­ing chil­dren. Un­der the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty Act, Chap­ter 12:01, chil­dren in con­flict with civ­il law can be man­aged with a fo­cus on re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion. “Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, based on ev­i­dence, can de­ter­mine the moth­ers’ risk lev­el on a case-by-case ba­sis,” the plan states.

The plan rec­om­mends a civ­il con­tract be de­vel­oped with the gov­ern­ment, com­mu­ni­ty, and af­fect­ed per­sons, with terms to be ap­plied to adult women re­turnees. The con­tract is mu­tu­al­ly bind­ing, oblig­at­ing re­turnees to T&T’s se­cu­ri­ty, and pro­vides for fines or im­pris­on­ment for breach­es. Rel­a­tives would al­so sign a co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment to sup­port re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion mea­sures.

The plan em­pha­sis­es trau­ma-in­formed care and cog­ni­tive as­sess­ments to eval­u­ate the ef­fects of trau­ma on mem­o­ry, con­cen­tra­tion, pro­cess­ing speed, lan­guage, and rea­son­ing. Ex­po­sure to trau­mat­ic events will be con­sid­ered to pre­vent mis­di­ag­no­sis or over­diag­no­sis of learn­ing dis­or­ders. These as­sess­ments will al­so in­form ed­u­ca­tion­al place­ments and oth­er sup­port ser­vices.

Re­cent train­ing em­pha­sised Psy­cho­log­i­cal First Aid, an ev­i­dence-based method to sup­port chil­dren, ado­les­cents, adults, and fam­i­lies fol­low­ing crises. The ap­proach fo­cus­es on pro­vid­ing com­fort, safe­ty, hope, and con­nec­tion, while link­ing re­turnees to fi­nan­cial, prac­ti­cal, men­tal health, and ed­u­ca­tion­al re­sources.

Re­turnees will face the chal­lenges of adapt­ing to a new en­vi­ron­ment, cop­ing with trau­mat­ic ex­pe­ri­ences, and in­te­grat­ing so­cial­ly, which may re­sult in anx­i­ety, de­pres­sion, grief, or PTSD. Lack of so­cial in­te­gra­tion can ex­ac­er­bate men­tal health dis­or­ders in the long term. In­ter­ven­tions will fo­cus on:

• Pro­mot­ing so­cial in­te­gra­tion

• Re­duc­ing bar­ri­ers to ac­cess­ing men­tal health care

• Fa­cil­i­tat­ing en­gage­ment with ser­vices

• Treat­ing those ex­hibit­ing men­tal health symp­toms

A mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary ap­proach will de­liv­er these ser­vices, with sup­port from so­cial work­ers, em­ploy­ment agen­cies, com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions, health­care pro­fes­sion­als, and spe­cial­ists in trau­ma-in­formed care, in­clud­ing Trau­ma-Fo­cused Cog­ni­tive Be­hav­iour­al Ther­a­py.

The plan stress­es the im­por­tance of com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment to fos­ter un­der­stand­ing of re­turnees’ ex­pe­ri­ences, ad­dress con­cerns, and re­duce bi­as­es. When com­mu­ni­ties feel con­nect­ed, they are more like­ly to sup­port re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and rein­te­gra­tion.

The plan high­lights that Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers have un­der­gone train­ing pro­grammes or­gan­ised by the US Em­bassy, with in­volve­ment from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Team Nightin­gale, the In­ter­na­tion­al Af­fairs Unit, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s Min­istry, and the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty. School psy­chol­o­gists, so­cial work­ers, psy­chi­a­trists, and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als are ex­pect­ed to play key roles.

Ma­jor Mus­lim or­gan­i­sa­tions and NGOs have ex­pressed sup­port for the repa­tri­a­tion and are pre­pared to as­sist in re­uni­fi­ca­tion, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, and rein­te­gra­tion.