Mohammed asks PM to pursue return of 97 from Syria

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

At­tor­ney Nafeesa Mo­hammed is ap­peal­ing to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to use her up­com­ing Unit­ed Na­tions vis­it to speak with Syr­i­an lead­ers and oth­er au­thor­i­ties to help repa­tri­ate the 97 T&T women and chil­dren who have been in Mid­dle East­ern refugee camps since 2019.

“Prime Min­is­ter, here you have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to change the course of these chil­dren’s lives,” Mo­hammed ap­pealed in a state­ment yes­ter­day on be­half of rel­a­tives of the 97 peo­ple.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ex­pect­ed to at­tend the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA) on Sep­tem­ber 24 and 25 and de­liv­er an ad­dress.

Among the planned en­gage­ments on the side­lines, the Gov­ern­ment has asked Venezuela to fa­cil­i­tate bi­lat­er­al talks be­tween the Prime Min­is­ter and Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez, who is al­so at­tend­ing the UN­GA. The talks are in­tend­ed to ex­pand a “new era” of height­ened co-op­er­a­tion in pri­or­i­ty ar­eas, fol­low­ing a re­cent meet­ing be­tween the T&T and Venezue­lan for­eign af­fairs min­is­ters.

Mo­hammed has been lob­by­ing for the re­turn of the 72 chil­dren and 25 women from the Mid­dle East­ern refugee camps since 2019. They are sur­viv­ing rel­a­tives of T&T na­tion­als who trav­elled to con­flict zones in the Mid­dle East be­tween 2012 and 2015 and joined the Is­lam­ic State ter­ror­ist group.

ISIS was de­feat­ed be­tween 2018 and 2019, af­ter which sur­vivors were placed in refugee camps in Syr­ia and Iraq. Since then, the US Cen­tral Com­mand has urged coun­tries to repa­tri­ate their na­tion­als.

The PNM had start­ed ac­tion to­wards repa­tri­at­ing the group, while the UNC promised dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign to bring them home.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, who heads the team ap­point­ed to han­dle the is­sue, did not re­spond to Guardian Me­dia queries yes­ter­day on the sta­tus of the mat­ter.

How­ev­er, Mo­hammed said: “Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter, as you rep­re­sent T&T at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, we, the rel­a­tives of T&T women and chil­dren strand­ed in Syr­ia, are ask­ing you to car­ry their voic­es with you.”

“These chil­dren have wait­ed, grow­ing up sur­round­ed by un­cer­tain­ty and hard­ship, sep­a­rat­ed from rel­a­tives in T&T who con­tin­ue await­ing the day they can fi­nal­ly hug them.”

Say­ing the chil­dren are in­no­cent, Mo­hammed added: “They didn’t choose the de­ci­sions of the adults around them or where they were tak­en or where they were born. Yet they’ve spent some of the most im­por­tant years of their child­hood pay­ing the price.”

“Prime Min­is­ter, T&T can change what hap­pens next. Au­thor­i­ties re­spon­si­ble for these women and chil­dren have in­di­cat­ed their will­ing­ness for for­eign na­tion­als to re­turn to their coun­tries. What’s need­ed from our Gov­ern­ment is the nec­es­sary en­gage­ment and doc­u­men­ta­tion to fa­cil­i­tate their jour­ney home.”

“What these chil­dren need is for some­one with the pow­er to open that door. At the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, you’ll stand among lead­ers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of gov­ern­ments who can help make their re­turn pos­si­ble.

“We re­spect­ful­ly ask you to use that ac­cess: speak di­rect­ly with the rel­e­vant rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Syr­ia and oth­er au­thor­i­ties in­volved, ask what T&T must do. Es­tab­lish the nec­es­sary diplo­mat­ic con­tacts. Let us fi­nal­ly be­gin mov­ing from dis­cussing to do­ing.”

Mo­hammed added: “We’re not ask­ing you to erase the past, sim­ply ask­ing you to help give these in­no­cent chil­dren a fu­ture at home, with their fam­i­lies, as T&T cit­i­zens. Please use this mo­ment at the UN­GA... bring our chil­dren home.”

“Give them the chance to be­come doc­tors, teach­ers, en­tre­pre­neurs, trades­peo­ple, moth­ers, fa­thers and pro­duc­tive T&T cit­i­zens—the chance to be­come known for what they be­come, not for where they spent their child­hood.

“Years from now, these chil­dren should be able to look back and know that when T&T fi­nal­ly had an op­por­tu­ni­ty to reach them, their coun­try didn’t turn away.”