WARDS OF THE COURT

JADA LOUTOO AND JULIEN NEAVES

THE Trini-born brothers who were rescued and reunited with their mother in northern Syria on Monday, have become wards of the State.

The boys, aged seven and 11, and their mother arrived in TT yesterday afternoon on a flight from London. The family was kept hidden from the media at the airport and relatives who had been waiting to greet them. They were accompanied by former Newsday columnist Joshua Surtees, who assisted in their return, and last night tried to block the media from taking photos. Surtees has also written about the family for the Newsday and recently the UK Guardian.

The children will be placed in the care of the Children’s Authority and will be assessed in keeping with an order of a High Court judge.

Justice Sharon Gibson, in the Family and Children Division of the Children’s Court, yesterday granted an emergency order to the authority, which made the boys wards of the State.

The court’s order also prevents the media from publishing images of the boys as an injunction was also granted.

Media houses were served with the order yesterday. It warned that failure to comply with the terms of the order will be considered contempt.

The judge ordered the authority to assess the children’s health, development and the manner in which they were treated. The assessment is to be done at the authority’s assessment centre or somewhere it deems appropriate, and will entail a medical, social, psychological, psychosocial, psycho-educational and psychiatric examination. The parents will also be assessed.

Under the supervision order, the boys will be closely monitored by the authority for an initial period of six months to determine the additional needs they would require, after they are placed with their mother.

The authority has also been given the liberty to file and serve further evidence based on the findings of any continuing investigation, and any results of the court-ordered assessment.

As a result of the court’s order, the children’s file will also be sealed by the registrar to protect the identities of the children. On Tuesday, they were in London where they received counselling.

According to a report in the UK news outlet The Guardian, the brothers were taken from Trinidad four years ago by their father who went to fight with ISIS in Syria. They spent several years living in the IS caliphate before ending up in Kurdish custody. They were released into their mother’s care on Monday.

According to the Guardian's report, the brothers and their mother crossed the Iraqi border with human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and they were then flown to Switzerland with the help of Roger Waters from the rock band Pink Floyd. The attorney, in a brief telephone interview yesterday, told Newsday the family's trip had been arduous.

"I hope everyone recognises what the mother and children have been through. Show respect and give them space. Allow them to overcome the dreadful trauma they all suffered."

National Security Minister Stuart Young spoke on the issue yesterday at the post-Cabinet media conference.

"Let's get an opportunity to assess the children, because at the end of the day my first and foremost concern is the safety and the welfare of the children. I want these boys to be able to live a normal life if they can. So the Children's Authority, I asked them to go to court and get an order and where we'll ask the mother for her consent.“

He said it is the methodology of ISIS to train young children "to use weapons and kill people" and it will have to be ascertained whether any such training took place with the boys. He added Government was seeking assistance internationally for psychological experts to treat these children.

Asked why Government only came forward after it was announced the boys had been taken to London Young responded "It is not Government's responsibility to repatriate persons."

He said part of the process is investigations.

"These people (who rescued them) had resources on the ground there. We did what we could from Trinidad. We even looked at the possibly of flying our own personnel out there. But as you would or you should rather understand these are dangerous places, conflict zones. They are literally war zones.”

Young said there are more TT citizens, including children, who were in these war zones and he has been going to Washington and other places to open doors of communications. He was also asked about reports a 16 year-old TT national had been captured while fighting with ISIS in Syria. He said he had seen the report but he had been officially informed.