The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is urging all countries to repatriate its nationals, even as the government considers the challenges of returning some 100 women and children who have been kept in camps in Syria.
Former Speaker Nizam Mohammed, Kwasi Atiba, from the Islamic Resource Society, and retired diplomat Patrick Edwards met with the Prime Minister in Whitehall to discuss the repatriation of TT women and children who are being accommodated as refugees in camps in Syria under Turkish supervision.
- Advertisement -
The day following the meeting, Mohammed told Newsday that the issue is exceedingly delicate, has a worldwide scope, and would require aid and cooperation from foreign countries and agencies. He pleaded for patience and said that a validation exercise must be completed first.
The UN committee stated in a recent statement: “States must urgently repatriate children, together with their mothers – a solution that we now know is eminently feasible. We note that it is of the utmost importance that comprehensive rehabilitation programs are in place when children are repatriated.”
The declarations of lawyer Criston Williams, who has been pleading with the authorities to return the women and children to their homes for years, were mirrored in the release. Williams said on Wednesday that inmates in the camps should be sent home since they haven’t been found guilty of any crimes and are just being held there permanently. He invited Edwards to go with the team as the diplomatic attache and stated one will go to Syria in the coming months to start the vetting.
A child cannot be treated differently or punished because of anything their parents did, according to the statement, and mass imprisonment of the children for what their parents may have done “is an egregious violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a nonprofit that advocates for the reintegration of women and children, there are 56 youngsters in camps in Syria—21 females and 13 boys, including a teenage boy.
According to a recent Newsday article from last year, when ISIS was defeated, more than 50,000 individuals were held at the camps by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the US.
The majority of the men that quit TT to join ISIS perished. The survivors were brought to Syria and Iraq, where they were joined by their wives and kids. At the time, 73 children were living in the Al-Hol, Al-Hawl, and Al-Roj camps, including 38 who were born in Trinidad and Tobago, 31 in Syria, and four in Iraq. Orphans are another thing.
Al-Hol and Al-Ro,j, which each housed some 56,000 people, were the two biggest camps for women, children, and young boys, according to a UN announcement. There are 37,000 foreign nationals among them, more than half of them are youngsters, most of whom are under the age of 12 (80%), and 30% are under the age of five. 850 of them are boys.
“Many children are now entering their fifth year of detention in northeast Syria, since they were detained by the de facto authorities following the fall of Baghouz in early 2019. It is now time to bring them home,” according to the statement, four kids, including three little girls, had been killed in the previous several months.
The Al-Hol camp was the subject of a report from the nonprofit organization Doctors Without Borders in November. The camp is divided into two sections: the main camp, where Syrian and Iraqi nationals are housed, and the annex, where over 11,000 foreigners from nearly 60 different nations are accommodated.
According to the study, there are ongoing patterns of violence and exploitation as well as persistent violations of human rights.
“Al-Hol was designed to provide safe, temporary accommodation and humanitarian services to civilians displaced by the conflict in Syria and Iraq. However, the nature and purpose of Al-Hol have long deviated and grown increasingly into an unsafe and unsanitary open-air prison after people were moved there from Islamic State (IS)-controlled territories in December 2018.”
According to the research, people living in the camps are subjected to ongoing physical and psychological suffering as well as danger and violence. According to the study, teams operating in Al-Hol frequently saw instances of exploitation and violence.
“In 2021, the leading cause of mortality in Al-Hol was crime-related death, which accounted for 38 percent of all deaths in the camp. Between January and August 2022, there were 34 reported murders in the camp.”
According to the UN assessment, children in this area of violence should be safeguarded, not disciplined.
“These children are victims of terrorism and of very serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and must be treated with dignity in all contexts, whether armed conflict or terrorism. Safe return to their home countries, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the only solution and must be prioritised.”
