My name is Abid Shamdeen and I'm part of Nadia Murad's initiative. I was born and raised in Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland. I would like to thank the committee for giving me a chance to clarify some points about the Yazidi situation.
First, I want to just point out a few things before I get into the Yazidi situation. I want to mention that Canada was part of the coalition that toppled the Saddam regime, and some Canadian nationals were also part of the ISIS group that committed crimes against Yazidis and others.
Since 2014, we all know the Yazidis, a specific minority group, have been the target of al Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups. Al Qaeda killed thousands of Yazidis in the 2007 attack on Yazidi villages south of Sinjar Mountain, and since then attacks have continued against Yazidis. The recent and most cruel one, as we all know, was by ISIS in 2014.
The current situation of the Yazidis in Iraq is that they remain shattered. They are in IDP camps, refugee camps and some of them are in unfinished buildings in northern Iraq—Kurdistan, specifically—and they have been in these IDP camps since 2014. Some of them have been under the same tent.
Today, the future of Yazidis is in danger more than ever. The Canadian Parliament pledged to take 1,200 Yazidi ISIS survivors. I believe up until now, they have taken about 600 to 700 individuals, and we hope that the Canadian government will keep its promise and take the rest of the Yazidi survivors. I hope the committee can follow up with the Minister of Immigration and ask them to take more Yazidis, as they pledged to take 1,200 by the end of 2017.
Today, about 350,000 Yazidis remain in the IDP camps in northern Iraq, and about 67,000 in Greece and Turkey. Of those Yazidis who were taken into captivity by ISIS in 2014—mostly women and some children—1,200 to 1,300 remain in captivity, mostly in Syria. We believe some of them are also in Turkey.
We believe that, even though ISIS has been defeated militarily in Iraq, Yazidis are still a target of ISIS. Both the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government have imposed a blockade on Yazidi areas in Sinjar. Some of the roads that lead to Sinjar have been blocked for over a year. Even those who would like to return to their homes and try to rebuild their lives are not able to go back due to the restrictions put on the Sinjar area.
Likewise, international NGOs, such as UN agencies—UNDP and others—are not able to implement some of their projects because of those access issues. We believe that taking more Yazidis, especially the women who survived ISIS captivity, is very necessary. For those who have been taken, we have contact with them and their lives have been changed for the better. They are able to restart their lives in Canada. We hope that the remainder of that number—the 1,200 Yazidis—will be taken to Canada.
We will be here for questions if you have questions. Thank you.