Trini mom in ISIS detention camp wants to return home

ATTORNEYS for a Trinidadian woman in a Turkish-controlled deportation camp for those involved in ISIS have filed an application in the High Court in an attempt to get her and her daughter back home.

The application complains of the “undue delay” by the Minister of National security to accede to a request by Leslie Anne Seebaran, the mother of Crawford’s wife Yasirah Muhammed to send personal food items, clothing, medicine and money to her daughter in a Turkish-controlled deportation camp in Syria.

The attorneys, Criston J Williams, Celeste St Louis and Blaine Sobrian, are asking the court to judicially review the minister’s alleged delay to agree for the items to be sent to Muhammed, formerly known as Sherelle Bailey, as well as a one-time, one-way emergency passport so she can be released from the detention camp in Jarabulus, Syria, and return home.

Representing the minister are attorneys Gregory Delzin and Dianne Mano.

On Monday, the judicial review application was heard by Justice Jacqueline Wilson and it was the State’s position that it was objecting to the grant of judicial review. Delzin also asked for the matter to be treated as a rolled-up hearing.

Wilson gave directions for the filing of affidavits before setting a date for a virtual hearing on July 26.

The application said Muhammed’s health and physical well-being at the camp were in “clear and immediate danger because of the harsh winter conditions.”

“She is in dire need of humanitarian aid,” it added. It further said the minister cannot authorise or affect arbitrary detention, imprisonment or exile on any citizen nor can the minister discriminate against Muhammed’s right to life, liberty and security of her person.

“The cumulative effect of the decision to not provide Yasirah Muhammed, formerly Sherelle Bailey, with the requisite one-time, one-way travel document(s) has resulted in her arbitrary detention, imprisonment or exile for five hundred and seventeen (517) days to date,” the application, which seeks declaratory reliefs, added.

It also claimed a mother and her two children who were also at a detention camp were provided with emergency passports.

Seebaran, in support of the application, said her daughter had a Trinidadian-born son Yusha Crawford who was killed in an explosion in 2019.

“The death has caused significant mental trauma to my daughter and the child, whose present situation exacerbates this trauma. I believe that my daughter and granddaughter should be deemed as a woman and child with a disability having both physical and mental trauma for over a period of 12 months, “ she said in her affidavit.

Muhammed was among several Trinidadians who left for Syria or Iraq in 2014 and 2016.