Honourable members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
Having led the Baden-Württemberg special quota project for vulnerable women and children from northern Iraq, I feel honoured to share our experiences with you.
As you might know, it was the first time that a state of Germany established a special quota for refugees, with the German federal government giving its consent and support. As in your Parliament, all the democratic factions in our Landtag supported this program. I think it may be more important than ever to emphasize, in these days of populism, that democrats from all parties are still able to unite to fight terrorism and to support human rights.
Between March 2015 and January 2016, we were able to evacuate 1,000 women and children from Kurdistan Iraq to our state of Baden-Württemberg, and 100 more were brought by our teams to two other German states, Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein, which, thankfully, joined the efforts.
Contrary to some press coverage, our program was not a Yazidi program, but aimed at evacuating those women and children who had been in the hands of Daesh, had suffered traumatizing violence, and had lost their male relatives to the genocide. Therefore, more than 90% of our beneficiaries are Yazidis, but there are also some Christians and a small number of Muslim beneficiaries, too.
To start with, the federal state of Baden-Württemberg signed a contract with the regional government of northern Iraq Kurdistan, which formed the political frame of our involvement. After the political decision to establish this project, and after its lawful implementation, we quickly developed a structure of a core team in Stuttgart and mission teams of culturally sensitive and highly stress-resistant experts. The first colleague I had the honour to ask was Professor Kizilhan. You just heard him. He was the speaker before me. Another one was Simone Helmschrott, who was also part of our team.
I have to add that our team consisted of Christians, Muslims, Yazidis, and non-religious individuals, which prevented the accusation of being partial. From this good experience, I would also advise the Canadian government to take advantage of your diversity, which you have when you are working in the region. It's like being ambassadors, when the people see that we are working together from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
In 13 missions in 2015 and 2016 we were able to bring 1,100 women and children out of Iraq. In Baden-Württemberg, 21 cities volunteered to house these beneficiaries, provide housing, social work, and psychological treatment. The state of Baden-Württemberg has spent about 60,000 euros per person up until now. That is about 4,000 euros per person for identification, admission, first medical care, visa issue, and transport. The district received 42,000 euros per person. We expect about 15,000 euros per person for psychological treatment. In total, Baden-Württemberg planned up to 95 million euros for three years, but has spent much less than expected up until now. We think it won't be as expensive as we feared at the start.
Women were suggested to us by local NGOs, by churches, networks, and Luftbrücke Irak, Air Bridge Iraq, our local German Iraqi partners. They were able to make references to us, and then we evaluated the cases, especially our trauma psychologists.
The existing list of captives of Daesh within the Kurdish government was also important to find eligible beneficiaries. We developed a system of three persons who had to certify the beneficiaries for every case the mission had. That was me, Professor Kizilhan, and one of our visa experts. Thus, we made sure that no third party might intervene and it prevented corruption. It's difficult if you work with local people. They can be threatened or they can be bribed, so it was very clear that we had to make the decisions ourselves.
Northern Iraq still remains an important partner for us. Our special quota was a humanitarian admission program, but we are still active in the region. This year we are working on more sustainable solutions, working in the camps, funding shelters, and especially building a psychological trauma centre based in Duhok university, where Professor Kizilhan is, again, playing an important role.
I've been to Iraq very often in the last year and I listened to the statements of many survivors of the genocide. About 1,600 women and children were freed after the end of our program and should have a chance for a good future. Germany already has a huge Yazidi community able to help those beneficiaries who want to reintegrate. If I were to advise the Canadian government, I might suggest the mixed admission of emergency cases from Iraq and refugee families from other countries like Jordan or Greece. You have to see how you can bring the people, if they're able to reintegrate into our culture.
Finally, I would just like to say that some of the victims don't define themselves as victims anymore. Survivors like Nadia Murad, Lamiya Aji Bashar, Farida Khalaf, and others, speak out publicly. Nadia Murad has been in your Parliament. We see that more and more women are ready to speak out and to change the narrative and to accuse Daesh of its atrocities and to engage the global community in human rights. They are also reforming their own communities by being role models.
Lastly, our prime minister Winfried Kretschmann offered all the support we are able to give to Canada, if you would like to use our structures and our expertise, to work with us. We are ready to support you in any way possible. We are very grateful that your Parliament took the decision it did.
Thank you very much.
All the best to Canada.