Citizenship and Immigration Committee on July 19th, 2016

[Nadia Murad Basee Taha]

When it comes to girls, some of them in Iraq or in Syria risk their lives; and some of those girls, when they are contacted by people, when they tell their location they receive help. There are a few Muslim families in Iraq and Syria who have helped girls, just like the family who helped me to escape. But currently escaping is getting very difficult because there is no possibility to contact outside families. There are no possibilities to have news about the girls, some of the girls. For more than a year there has been no news about them, so escaping is becoming more difficult. When it comes to the families, the Muslim families in Iraq and Syria, this would be the only way to help them escape.

[Murad Ismael]

I want to add to that answer, too, because it's very important. The smuggling networks or the brokers pay through third parties in some cases. This process requires a lot of money. When I went there a couple of times, I saw many women begging for money, going from tent to tent asking for a dollar to be able to rescue their families. That's something I can share more with you privately.

Once a woman comes back, I want to share a few things. There is absolutely no network to receive her. There is absolutely no program to receive her. She would come and she would be first questioned probably by the police for a day. Or just directly, she would be left to go to her family, and in some cases she doesn't even have a person who survived. In some cases she would go to a cousin. When I was there this time, there was a woman who didn't have anyone, and they had to put her with a very distant relative because she had no one surviving from this genocide. There is no one to receive them.

There are no simple things like $100 to buy clothes. Before January 2015, I met one woman and she was still wearing the clothes from when she was taken into captivity. She said she didn't have the money to afford to buy new clothes for herself. For the women we see at the centre, there's collective trauma and they need a psychosocial program, but they need financial help. I think they need a monthly salary. Through the Iraqi government we provided salaries for 600 of them, and each one is receiving $120 a month, but also the Iraqi government has been giving us a very hard time to process the applications.

It would be good for a country like Canada to allocate, for example, a monthly contribution to these women so they can live with dignity. I think asking someone to treat their trauma while they don't have a place to live, while they cannot afford food, while they cannot even afford to go and see a woman doctor, a gynecologist.... Many of these women come back with gynecological problems, which they cannot afford.

That's why what Nadia said was right. I think bringing people to a different environment, then also you don't have to deal with other things like stigma, so bringing them to a different environment and then treating them, and then....

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Ismael.

Ms. Rempel, you have five minutes, please.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to the witnesses physically here in Ottawa first, just for the clarity of the committee, most Yazidi refugees are Iraqi nationals. Is that correct, a majority?

[Murad Ismael]

Yes, there are only a few thousand Syrians.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

With that as context, to our witness from the Or Shalom Syrian Refugee Initiative, the government has eliminated the exemption for Iraqi nationals under the mission cap for private sponsor refugees. Given that you have many families who are willing to sponsor refugees through the private sponsorship stream, would it be helpful if the government reintroduced this exemption for Iraqi nationals through the private sponsorship stream?

[David Berson]

I don't know that I can speak specifically to the Iraqi nationals. What I can tell you is that we are maxed out with four families right now, but I know from the sponsorship agreement holders with whom we work that there is a readiness to sponsor more families regardless of whether they're IDPs or whether they're Kurdish Iraqis. There are many more families I know of for whom we are searching to find private sponsors, but we've run out of the numbers in terms of what the government is prepared to allow.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

And that would be through the private sponsorship program.

I would like to clarify one comment that Mr. Ismael made. Your organization and others like yours have identified and do have lists of Yazidis in terms of their location, and who could be relocated through these types of programs. Is that correct?

[Murad Ismael]

Yes, and we can facilitate that so that the government officials here should not have any problems going to the countries where Yazidis are. We can help you to go there. It's mostly safe in the countries where Yazidis are, and we have lists of the direct victims, to a certain extent.

I heard from the previous discussion yesterday that there were some issues, that the government would not be able to go because of safety. I think that should not be something to block the path.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Very briefly, the government here has stated that there should be concern for Canadian officials' safety in terms of going to Iraq, as well as NGOs. But certainly when we look at ourselves as a country, helping people, we understand that there are risks to be taken. I don't want you to walk away thinking, because of these questions, that Canada is not willing to help, because I think we are.

I'll pass this over to my colleague Mr. Kent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Kent, you have two minutes.

[Peter Kent, Thornhill, CPC]

Thank you to all our witnesses for your powerful testimony today, for your advice, and for your appeal for extraordinary action to rescue the survivors of the continuing genocide.

I would like to just refer back to a suggestion made by a government colleague yesterday that because of the Yazidis' ancient language and culture, they may, as refugees, face particular difficulties in integrating in Canadian society.

I wonder, Mr. Ismail and Mr. Ismael, whether you would respond to that.

[Mirza Ismail]

The Yazidis have no problem at all in integrating into a different society. I think that the Yazidis, almost like a nation, are the most open-minded to live with others just as a brotherhood. The Yazidis would have no problem at all in integrating into Canadian society, as we did. We are here. We are Yazidis who came from Sinjar, and now some of us are working. Most of our friends are Canadians and Americans, and we have no problem. In religion, the Yazidis say that we are human beings, and we are all like one family, and we should respect one another and we should respect God's words. The Yazidis would have no problem at all with integrating into Canadian society.

[Murad Ismael]

I share the same thing. We have a homeland in Turkey and Iraq, and in Syria, but we are always on the move because of the persecution. Just as the Jewish people who have been all over the world, I think sometimes you don't have a choice. The Yazidis have no choice, and I think they will be integrated.

The results from the high school just came out in Kurdistan, and I think probably the first three or four schools on top are the Yazidi schools. It's not because they are very special, but because they have seen so much tragedy and they believe in hard work, so I think they will be integrated into a community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Zahid, you have five minutes, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

My first question is for Nadia Taha. Nadia, I would like to thank you for joining us today and for courageously sharing with us, and also with the world, your story and the plight of your people.

I read with interest your powerful address to the United Nations Security Council. You discussed resettlement for the most vulnerable, but also the liberation of your homeland so your people can one day return home and live in peace.

Could you discuss how the international community can help bring that needed safety and peace, and improve the conditions in that region?

[Nadia Murad Basee Taha]

Yes. When it comes to the Yazidis we have two issues that we ask of the world: either they admit that genocide has taken place and they give us safety and protection in our homeland; or they facilitate our migration. I think that's reasonable.

We are no longer willing to put up with more genocide. They either protect us in our homeland or provide protection for us elsewhere so that we could live peacefully elsewhere if we have to leave our homeland.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

My next question is for Murad Ismael.

You mentioned the number of 5,000 to 10,000. How do you arrive at that number? For this number that you have mentioned, would you draw on people in camps or those people who are still in northern Iraq? If they're still in northern Iraq, how can you gain access for the processing and the security purposes for those people?

[Murad Ismael]

Yes, northern Iraq is safe. The civilian program has been done through that, so there is no problem. With the German program, people went to Dohuk in northern Iraq, and they were processed there. It is not an issue to go to northern Iraq and process the applications. As for how to select those 5,000 to 10,000, I think the direct victims of the genocide should be given priority and also the refugees in Turkey. We can work on a recipe, or some composition of people, with some people who are direct victims and some people who are in Turkey. I think it will not be an issue to find who are the most vulnerable.

There is also access to all the camps. For example, the camp of Qadiya is where most of the women are who escaped from captivity. That camp is in Zakho. It's accessible and anyone can visit it.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

As we all know, unfortunately, settlement cannot be a solution for everyone in this situation. What can we do to improve conditions on the ground? How can we help countries hosting camps to better support the population in those camps?

Other than resettlement, what are the other things that can be done on the ground?

[Murad Ismael]

We have to also think about the long-term solutions. We have to free or recapture all the areas, for example. We still have 30% to 40% under the control of ISIS. We have to have a safe zone, or international protection, or some sort of administrative and security parameters to ensure that no future genocides will occur against the Yazidis, Christians, or other minorities.

We have to think about the long-term solution. We thought the recognition of the genocide through the ICC would probably provoke the international community to set up these parameters for the future of the Yazidis and others. That's why we are focusing on that.

We need to think about the long-term solutions and at the same time resettle some people and provide humanitarian aid. Go to a camp and ask them when they last received dry food such as rice, sugar, and flour. They will tell you the last time they received that was six months ago. This is something that could be purchased in Turkey, Iran, or other countries and could be given to the people. Immediate humanitarian aid needs to be provided.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

The same question to Mr. Ismail, what do you recommend?

[Mirza Ismail]

For the long term, Canada could work with other allies like the U.S., and other European countries like the U.K., to support the creation of an autonomous region for the Yazidis and Chaldo-Assyrian Christians. This is the only way we can survive in the Middle East, because both governments... The central government in Sinjar, allegedly to protect them, they defeated in June, and the KRG had more than 10,000 of its peshmerga they say. The Iraqi government failed, so the Sinjar has to be part of KRG now, and they say, “We're going to protect you”.

When ISIS attacked, many of the peshmerga and local Kurds joined up with ISIS and killed their Yazidi neighbours. The Yazidi lost trust in our neighbours, both the Yazidi and the Assyrians. We hope that.... Iraq is a federal government now. Under the new constitution, if a region wants to have a separate administration, then they're allowed, but they don't accept that because we are Yazidi and we are Christian.

That needs the intervention of the international community to work with the Iraqi government and with the KRG government. It is only by word of mouth that they say they are democratic, but in fact they are not democratic. They are dictatorships. We have seen it with the governments now in place, the local government and the national government.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

[Mirza Ismail]

They need international support to create a safe zone for the Assyrian Christians. We hope Canada will provide them with military training. We have more than...at least now in Sinjar. There are two Yazidi forces. We have 10,000 to 15,000 men and women who are protecting their lands and families with the Christians. We need to provide military training to those people until we have a safe zone for them.