Constitutional amendments necessary to aid repatriation of Trinidad and Tobago nationals from conflict zones

Legal aspects related to repatriation

The Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago should be amended to ensure that no citizen may be deprived of their citizenship status. This would guarantee the protection of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago even outside its borders.

The amendment would oblige Trinidad and Tobago to accept their citizens and allow for voluntary repatriation in the context of family reunification.

Why is repatriation necessary?

Approximately 90 to 100 Trinidad and Tobago nationals are detained in northeast Syria by US-backed, Kurdish-led regional forces, according to family members and advocates. They include an estimated 21 women, at least one of them a grandmother, and at least 56 children in Roj and al-Hol, two locked camps for families with alleged ISIS links. Forty-four of the children in the camps are age 12 or younger and 15 are under age 6. At least 33 children were born in Syria. In addition, at least 13 Trinidadian males, including at least one teenage boy, are held in other detention centers.

Conditions in the camps and prisons holding Trinidadians and other ISIS-linked suspects and family members are increasingly dire. Turkish airstrikes in November 2022 hit a security post at one camp, killing eight guards, and came perilously close to striking one of the prisons. Health care, clean water, shelter, and education and recreation for children are grossly inadequate. 

The Human Rights Watch report that “Trinidad and Tobago is turning its back on its nationals unlawfully held in horrific conditions in northeast Syria”.