Since 2019, more than 90 Trinidad and Tobago nationals, including at least 50 children, have been arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria for alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS). After enduring years of life-threatening conditions, their situation in recent weeks has only gotten worse.
Trinidadian women detained in Syria’s Roj camp, which is under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, recently reported to Human Rights Watch what they described as escalating abuses by Asayish, Kurdish internal security forces, including night raids, beatings, threats, and degrading treatment. In a message to Human Rights Watch, one woman described armed men entering the camp late at night, firing into the air, forcing women and children from their tents at gunpoint, separating boys from their mothers, and beating the children. “It’s the most humiliated and powerless I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” she said. She said the men beat her as well and shouted, “You will never be free. You are garbage. You’ve failed your children. They are going to die.” The attack continued for four hours.
More than 40,000 foreigners from 60 countries have been held in camps and other detention facilities in northeast Syria since the fall of ISIS in 2018-2019. Since then, at least 40 countries have repatriated more than 12,000 of their nationals. Despite numerous promises to repatriate its own nationals, Trinidad and Tobago has only accepted back two boys in April 2025.
Most Trinidadian detainees are children who never chose to live under ISIS. Many were taken to Syria by parents who sought to join ISIS or live in the “caliphate.” Thirty or more were born in Syria. Not one Trinidadian being held in northeast Syria has been charged with a crime or had access to a judge to challenge their detention, which is unlawful.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago has long cited the difficulty of engaging with a nonstate armed group controlling the camps as a barrier to repatriation. As control of the area shifts and international engagement with Syria’s transitional authorities increases, that justification is less convincing.
The lives of dozens of Trinidadian women and children are hanging in the balance.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar should act immediately to bring the country’s detained nationals home.
