Citizenship and Immigration committee  We had suspected at the start that they would need therapy immediately, and there were some cases that needed to be hospitalized. Some also had very hard medical issues. However, what most of them actually needed was everyday life. The children needed to go to kindergarten, to sc

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We started in January 2015 to approach the Kurdish government. Then we built up the structures and made treaties with our partners. In March 2015, we managed to bring the first group of beneficiaries to Germany. Then we adjusted our planning. It was a small group with a little mo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Excuse me?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly. There were 1,100 beneficiaries. About 950 Yazidis came into Baden-Württemberg, maybe 40 Christians and 10 Muslims, tentatively speaking, and almost all in the other states are Yazidi. It was 1,100 overall.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. [Proceedings continue in camera] [Public proceedings resume]

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —we have the numbers too.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, but I would advise that you maybe to talk with the Kurdish government, because if they give us information, maybe it would not be that diplomatic if we just forwarded it. Maybe it's a better way if Canada approaches them. Of course we can help.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  On the one side there are cases, for example when you need permissions, that some people might want to take money for. Many Kurdish officials haven't had a salary for months, so for many of them it's difficult when suddenly people are coming from all over the world and they have

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —but we could handle them. On the other side, of course, there are rumours, and people are jealous. Then they might say that someone got admission because they paid for it, so we were very strict on these things.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, we went there and spoke with the Kurdish government, and we saw how different NGOs are working. Air Bridge Iraq-Luftbrücke Irak is a German organization built by German Kurdish groups, and they were already in the business of evacuating children. They helped medical eme

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it was good that we had both of them. For example, Luftbrücke Irak and Mirza Dinnayi had very good contacts through the high council of the Yazidi religion, and he knew a lot of people on the ground. On the other side, IOM was brilliant on logistics, on medical flying bus

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, actually, we didn't. According to our constitution, it's even forbidden for state officials to ask for the religion, although, of course, we knew in most cases. For example, there were rumours. Some said that a family might have converted to Christianity, and we said it's oka

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If they wanted to tell us about that, we were fine with it. For example, we asked them whether they would want to be blessed by the Baba Sheikh in Lalish, but if someone was hesitant, if someone wouldn't want to talk about the subject, we completely accepted that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There was Professor Kizilhan, one colleague on our team from the visa department, and the team leader. When I was team leader, it was me. There were the three of us.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, the decision team was only German, was only from our state. That was part of the regulation. It was so that no one would be allowed to interfere in the decision process. It was not only because of the fear of corruption, but you can also imagine, for example, that if you had