Another letter states: “I'm requesting your help reuniting with my family so they can resettle successfully in Canada. I arrived in Canada in December 2018 with my family and five children. Before I arrived in Canada, my life was horrible. Before ISIS, we were very happy making a living raising livestock. We were not very rich, but we were happy as we were all together. After ISIS arrived, our village was surrounded by the militants for seven days. We were not able to eat. We were told that the women would be taken into slavery and that the men would be taken into ISIS. After seven days, we decided to escape during the night. We were able to make it to a different village. Our father was in a different village and advised us via telephone to remain silent about our escape, as he was going to try to escape to join us. That was the last time we talked to our father. The village he was in was totally destroyed.”
It continues: “We walked all night and reached a shrine in the mountain. I was pregnant at the time with my fifth child. We were warned not to stay, as ISIS was targeting religious shrines. We continued to the other side of the mountain. We were able to get a ride the next day to safety. We lived—18 family members—in one room in a building that my brother-in-law had. My sister-in-law was captured and eventually released after two years, bought out for $15,000. She was allowed to select my family to join her in Canada due to her past history of being captured. There are 16 other family members who are presumed dead—grandmothers, aunts, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews. My surviving family members are: a sister, a brother-in-law, three children, his sister and brother-in-law, and two more children.”
It continues: “We were torn apart as a family. I have only two sisters left in my family. The situation in the camps is not very good. It is not a safe place for them. My mind is always preoccupied with worry. I am not able to learn anything at school. As soon as I leave my class, my mind is thinking about my missing family. We are here in Canada in a safe place. With all of my family still over there and all of us apart, I would like the Canadian government to help reunite us so that we can have a new future in Canada. I would like the Canadian government to get my people out of ISIS' hands.”
Another—