Even as police questioned a 16-year-old St Mary boy who is accused of taking steps to join the Islamist group, ISIS there are questions among serious watchers of international news as well as among people on the coast about what happened.
The youth who cannot be named, because he is under the age of seventeen years old and also because he has not been charged, was refused entry into the South American country of Suriname, Saturday on suspicion that he was travelling to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The teen returned to Kingston Saturday and was staying with family members. He was not in police custody and had not been charged.
Immigration officers in Suriname claimed they suspected that the youth from a community near Port Maria was traveling to join ISIS and planned to do so by way of Turkey.
SCHOOL TRANSFER
The youth told immigration in Suriname that he was going to his grandmother who lives in the Netherlands (Holland). It is likely he was using that route rather than trying to fly to London, for which he would have needed a visa, and then onto the Netherlands. Travel is frequent and easy between Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands and that European country which maintain strong ties.
One question raised by many is why the boy would have been going to family at the end of the holidays (Saturday) rather than at the start, before Easter. The Times has confirmed the teen was still in high school and only recently received a transfer to a school nearer his home.
Some observers argue that the youth might have been going to the Netherlands from where it would have been easier to go to his mother who has been living in England for the last ten years. Those people argue that the youth had no terrorist intention or big political ideas and was simply intent on going to live away.
Police searched the home where the teen lives with his father and said they found ganja but have given no indication that there was any material to indicate the youth was being radicalized or was in any contact with ISIS or Islamic militants.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Sources indicate that local and international intelligence may have picked up social media “footprints” or material in which specific terms or words used would draw attention to the youth and brought him under surveillance.
The Surinamese police said the youth was denied entry because they received information from a regional intelligence service that he wanted to join ISIS. That could come from his social media conversations or comments but has not been confirmed.
After the boy was interrogated and additional information received from Jamaica, the decision was made to send him back to Kingston on the next available flight.
People have gone from all over the world to fight with ISIS in Iraq where they have used brutal tactics including beheading and mass killings of people who have not embraced Islam.
