PM: Government working to repatriate Trinidad and Tobago nationals in Syria

PRIME Minister Stuart Young says government continues to work to repatriate Trinidad and Tobago nationals who are in conflict zones in Syria.

He was speaking with the media outside the Macoon Street Mosque, Victoria Village on March 31.

"When I return to office (on April 28), the repatriation of our Trinidad and Tobago nationals from Syria is something that is an ongoing process."

Young said under his tenure as national security minister in 2018, Task Force Nightingale was established, "recognising the need for us to have an infrastructure here (in TT) that we could receive our citizens when they come back."

He said, "There are a lot of complexities in it."

Young added there is a committee headed by former speaker of the House of Representatives Nizam Mohammed which is looking at those things.

"Again, it is now being handled by (the Ministry of ) National Security and the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs and it is something that I have my eye on."

On whether the repatriation is under-resourced, Young said, "Everyone may say that they want more resources and this type of thing. But that committee was set up for a specific reason to engage and to gather the information for us."

He hoped that this is what is going on.

"I will ask for a report. There is a new minister of national security (Marvin Gonzales) and also the Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs (Dr Amery Browne) from them, where we have reached in that process."

Gonzales was reassigned from public utilities to national security in a Cabinet reshuffle on March 17. Former national security minister Fitzgerald Hinds was appointed a minister in the Office of the Prime Minister on that day, which also saw Young being sworn in as prime minister, succeeding Dr Keith Rowley.

Young said, "There is a verification exercise that has to take place and it is a difficult verification because of course, our citizens are in conflict zones. They are literally in war zones."

He recalled as national security minister in 2018, getting that information was "not as simple as we would like."

That exercise, Young continued, involved meeting with foreign governments that may have better resources in getting that information.

"We have asked for that assistance. But it is something that I am very conscious of and that we will continue focusing on."

On December 11, Mohammed said the situation continued to be very complex with the uncertainties taking place in the Middle East.

“Before we can ascertain the current situation, we have to wait to see and hope that those who are controlling the camp can be accessed in order for us to relate with the people who are in detention. It is too early to say.”

Some of those events were linked to the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

In February, attorney for the families of 12 Trinidadian women and their children detained in a refugee camp in northern Syria requested a meeting with the Attorney General and key government ministers to address their repatriation.

Commenting on the issue at Eid celebrations at Fairfield Recreation Grounds, Princes Town, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said government had done nothing from 2015 to now to repatriate these people.

She said she previously indicated a future UNC government will do this.