Beware hidden agendas of foreigngroups

THE EDITOR: The Government has to be careful about the hidden agenda of foreign groups trying to pressure/persuade it to make decisions that may not benefit TT in the long run.

The US is a big financial contributor to the security and relief aid in those Syrian detention camps and the American taxpayer is becoming weary of continuing to do so, especially as the average citizen thinks ISIS is a dead horse. Simple solution – no detainees, no need for the camps, no expenditure.

You don't have to send in the marines when the US-based NGO Human Rights Watch will do the job for you. There is the veiled threat that the international image of TT will be tarnished if efforts are not prioritised in bringing back people who turned their backs on the country of their birth and its values. People who decided to give up their citizenship for another.

The NGO cites the case of one detainee who says he/she was told they were going to Disneyland but fails to give the age of that person then and now.

What I believe is of interest to many Trinidadians/Tobagonians is what that person has done between the then and now. Was the person radicalised? Did he/she aid and abet in the killing of innocent people? Is that person now acting as an innocent to get back into a society that may provide fertile ground for a misfit?

I only ask these questions because I think the Government has to ask these questions and must not be bullied into a decision with far-reaching implications for our society.

Two First World nations, Britain and France, have withdrawn the citizenship of certain people involved with ISIS without any damage to their international image. The precedent has been set.

C JUTAGIR

Port of Spain