Flight of the nightingale

Last week, one week after Carnival,  a conversation we have not been keen on initiating opened, uncomfortably, in full public view. This was not the routine arguments over who won which Carnival competition, or the current appallingly framed discussion on “human trafficking.”

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) presser on detained ISIS fighters and their families came like an exploding flambeau in the middle of the mas’. How many of us would have preferred the situation remain off the public agenda and away from unaccommodating eyes?

There was, after all, no real political tension over the issue. Most of our political combatants would not know where to begin a meaningful dialogue. Additionally, the gaping psycho-social wounds of July 1990 congregate alongside the oozing sores of murderous ISIS adventurism.

For over four and a half years, a “Nightingale Team”, comprising at least a dozen state agencies, has worked quietly (and out of sight) to address the concern that nationals of this country were being held indefinitely and under horrendous conditions at camps and detention centres in Syria and Iraq.

I cannot recall any significant updates on Nightingale’s work since it was launched in August 2018. But it was set up by the ministry of national security with multiple Cabinet fingers in the brew.

When HRW launched its report here on February 28, the most significant responses were from the attorney general and the minister of foreign affairs – signalling the current dominance of diplomacy and law-making in the process of addressing the challenge.

This is not to say that national security concerns have at any stage been backburnered by either the government or other interested international parties. I am aware of the watchful eyes and attentive ears.

Problem is, countries big and small have not found it easy to answer questions about both suspected perpetrators, and those who can be considered to be victims of the horrible nightmare that engulfed parts of Syria and Iraq for over five years, between 2013 and 2018.

The putting down of vile ISIS ambitions meant a variety of things to different countries and people. There have been lingering geo-political challenges, uneven application of international and domestic law, and massive efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate large swathes of territory scarred by violence and destruction.

All of these concerns converge around the fate of thousands of displaced persons, including over 10,000 from approximately 60 countries outside Syria and Iraq.

It is from among such ranks emerge the 90-100 T&T nationals – mainly male terror suspects (who have neither my respect nor sympathy), non-suspect women, and children.

Most of the other detainees in the camps are from countries currently undergoing problematic processes to comply with humanitarian law while confronting sharply negative public opinion.

In 2019, for instance, a failed parliamentary petition with close to 600,000 signatures called on the government to revoke the citizenship of those who travelled overseas to take up the ISIS cause. You may have also followed the case of Shamima Begum who only weeks ago lost a final appeal against the revocation of her citizenship.

In Canada, there was vigorous debate over a failure to prosecute returning fighters through a purported violation of an international (genocide) convention and domestic anti-terrorism law.

The United States has been at the forefront of global advocacy for repatriation/domestic prosecution against the backdrop of the possible “re-emergence of ISIS Core” – to quote Ian Moss, US Deputy Coordinator for Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorist Detentions.

There appears to be anecdotal evidence that such a threat truly exists, particularly when you consider conditions conducive to the radicalisation of young detainees in the camps. There is some journalism to support this contention.

In January, three Barbadian nationals, a woman and two children, were handed over to Barbados authorities. The island’s experience however hardly mirrors ours. T&T has the dubious distinction of attracting the highest per capita number of recruitments to ISIS in the western hemisphere.

I have a particular concern about the young children and babies born at the centres who are being subjected to atrocious living conditions. Fifty-six of them are ours.

If only for their sake, the “Nightingale Team” needs to accelerate its work. The fact that the matter now actively engages the attention of the attorney general also suggests that appropriate laws for the prosecution and conviction of terrorism suspects are being actively engaged.

I think we should bring these people back home, even if suspects are made to come last. It is the extremely difficult but correct thing to do. The flight of this nightingale needs to take us to that point.