Greetings from Iraq.
Over the last year, I have been serving as the director of a community centre providing services to a population of over 40,000 displaced Yazidis. While it has been mentioned many times already, the horror that the Yazidis have experienced is ongoing, and we must acknowledge that thousands of Yazidi women, children, and youth remain in the clutches of ISIS today.
I have worked for NGOs internationally for over 15 years, in countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, and Pakistan. I thought I had seen the worst of humanity, but then I moved to northern Iraq and I heard first-hand the accounts of what Yazidis have had to endure at the hands of ISIS. I have seen no other minority group in Iraq that has had to endure the evil that ISIS has perpetuated against the Yazidi population. Please understand; we do not want to minimize in any way the ISIS horrors inflicted on these other minority groups.
On August 3, 2014, 718 days ago, an entire Yazidi people group became the focus of an ongoing ISIS genocidal intent, as clearly documented in the UN Human Rights Council report released on June 15, 2016. This is now formally recognized by the UN and the Government of Canada as genocide. They have been singled out because of their religious narrative and perceived lifestyle. Throughout Iraq, Yazidis have been stigmatized as subhuman, dirty, and devil-worshippers.
I sat down with my Yazidi staff and talked with them about what they have faced and why they want to leave Iraq. This is what they told us: “We have been attacked and targeted by Muslims because they think we do not believe in God. The future looks bad for us as Yazidis and we are worried about our children. We think that our children could be killed and targeted by Muslims in the future. We would prefer to leave rather than go back to Sinjar. No one protected us there. We have lost trust for everyone. Neither the peshmerga or the Iraqi army protected us, they handed us over to ISIS. We lived close to Arab Muslims and when we were attacked, we were abandoned by them as well—abandoned by our neighbours who we have known and welcomed into our homes. These people helped ISIS to attack us and our girls. After what happened on Sinjar, we no longer trust Muslims—especially because of what has happened to our girls—who have been taken, held captive, raped, and sometimes killed.”
Yazidis are victims of genocide, the most heinous crime of our modern era. However, trying to leave has held its own challenges. Most Yazidis are internally displaced and therefore not considered refugees. Most Yazidis do not have proper identification. The Kurdish government will not issue identification because Yazidis from Sinjar are from regions of Iraq that are controlled by the central government, which means a very costly and dangerous trip to Baghdad to get a passport and documents.
Many of them, certainly the ones in my community, are not wealthy and do not have the resources to go to another country. Some have scraped together the money needed to be smuggled out of the country, but many are not willing to risk this. One of our staff's extended family lost 11 people in the Aegean Sea when they attempted to cross. This leaves them in a vulnerable position, remaining in camps and temporary shelters at the mercy of the region that wants them to leave.
Yazidis understand that they exist in a surrounding culture and context that views them with contempt. They do not expect to receive fair treatment in systems that we would expect would serve them. All of these challenges leave them feeling trapped.
If Canada is going to seek to offer services to them, it is important to understand this context and ensure that those who engage with them are aware of this history and these biases. The Yazidis need Canada's assistance and intervention.