TT woman tells Sky News: 91 children in Syria

There has been yet another plea from a TT national in war-torn Syria for government to repatriate citizens stranded there.

The woman told journalist John Spruggs of Sky News there are over 90 TT children in Syria. A Sky investigative documentary shown last week dealt with the condition of citizens from several countries who joined ISIS, the remnants of the terrorist group now in its last stages.

The video focused on several tents along the Syria/Turkish border, and showed a TT national being interviewed without identifying herself. She mingles with hundreds of women and children in one of the makeshift camps.

She tells reporter Spruggs, “There are over 90 children in Syria. What is Trinidad’s view on this? They say nothing. I will like to hear what Trinidad saying about their people here. For over 90 kids they say nothing. Are they ever concerned?”

The government is yet to identify a policy on whether citizens will be brought back home. In Iraq, the daughter, granddaughter and great-grandchildren of Nazim Mohammed, imam of Boos Village mosque in Rio Claro, are trapped.

In the aftermath of the incident in which a mother left TT for Syria to bring home her children from a detention camp manned by the Kurds, National Security Minister Stuart Young said the government was examining ways and means to return nationals, especially women and children.

Government’s figure for the total number who went to Syria and Iraq is 135.

Prof Simon Cottee, who visited TT to study of migration to fight for ISIS since 2014, commented yesterday on the Sky News report as it related to TT children: “I reckon at least a third were born out there, or more. At least 40 kids went between 2014 and March 2015.”