Yazidis relive the horror as deportation looms
One year ago, after the German government recognised Islamic State's 2014 assault on Iraqi and Syrian Yazidis as genocide, the 150,000 Yazidis who had since settled in Germany began to feel they had finally found a home.
But that all changed for Fehima Evdi Derwis, a 32-year-old mother of three in Berlin, when she and her family received deportation orders at the end of last year. "Neighbours called us infidels and Satan worshippers," she told Qantara.de, expressing fears of being forcibly returned to Iraq.
Such persecution was a daily reminder of the terror Yazidis experienced almost a decade ago. An ancient Middle Eastern people who follow a faith that blends elements of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism, the Yazidis were viewed as pagan devil worshippers by Islamic State.
When the terror group seized vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, they massacred Yazidis and forced thousands of Yazidi women and girls into sex slavery.
Between fear and annihilation: Yazidi refugees in Iraq
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In search of protection: thousands of members of the Yazidi minority have fled an onslaught by the brutal fighters of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militias. Those who managed to find shelter in a refugee camp in northern Iraq can count themselves lucky. Supplying refugees on Mount Sinjar with food and water is an extremely difficult task. Demands for more assistance from the West are increasing. -
Mass exodus: the Yazidis have been almost completely driven out of the areas controlled by the IS jihadists, often with brutal force. Thousands fled to Syria, although some have since returned to Iraq, like here in Fishkhabour on the Iraqi-Syrian border. -
Robbed, humiliated and traumatised: all too often, IS militiamen have robbed refugees of their money, valuables and passports. Many have nothing left but the clothes they are wearing. A great number of children have been traumatised by what they have experienced, and at least 500 Yazidis have been killed in the conflict. -
Lack of basic necessities: tumult ensued as bottles of water were distributed to families of Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq. The provision of supplies to the refugees in the autonomous Kurdish regions is a massive logistical challenge. -
The Red Crescent in action: members of the Kurdish Red Crescent are helping refugees near Mount Sinjar. Many refugees have been injured or are weak from the long journey, which many of them undertook on foot. -
The conditions awaiting the Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq are in some cases appalling. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of one million people all over Iraq have now fled their homes, including Yazidis and many Christians. -
A little comfort in a frightening situation: the UN refugee agency UNHCR has set up provisional refugee camps across northern Iraq, including one near the city of Erbil. The refugees are pleased to have at least some fabric walls to call their own and happy to have been able to save a few personal belongings from their homes. -
Supplies by helicopter: the US Air Force has been delivering food and water to the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar. The refugees urgently rely on these deliveries as they are otherwise completely cut off from the outside world. Pictured here: US soldiers prepare pallets of water for a humanitarian air drop -
A crowd of refugees waited as an Iraqi helicopter came into land on 13 August. A planned large-scale rescue operation by the US army in the region was called off because the Pentagon concluded that there were considerably fewer refugees there than originally feared. -
Hunger, thirst and fear for their lives: the UN estimates that some 1,000 people are still stranded on the mountain range. They are suffering from the heat and from a lack of water. There are also unconfirmed reports that IS jihadists have kidnapped around 100 Yazidi women and children from Mount Sinjar. -
Women, children and the injured first: aid workers are trying to fly out the injured and the very weak, as well as women and children. Recently, a helicopter crashed during a rescue operation because it was carrying too many passengers. -
Criticism of the West for its inaction: across Europe, members of the Yazidi community – including those pictured here in Hanover – are demonstrating for more support from the West. They are calling for more humanitarian aid and for weapons for the Kurds of northern Iraq to help them stop the advance of IS jihadists.
Half a million Yazidis fled their historic homeland, with hundreds of thousands ending up in Europe. Fehima and her husband lacked the resources to make the arduous journey. Living in a displaced persons camp in Iraq, they were unable to find work and suffered through four difficult years.
Finally, in 2018, they made their way to Germany, where by that time the warm generosity and openness that had inspired the government to welcome a million asylum-seekers had largely waned.
The situation has since worsened following a stark change in the political landscape. Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise with support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) currently hovering around 20 percent.
In November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to ramp up deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. Shortly after, a German media report revealed that Baghdad and Berlin had signed a secret deportation agreement that included the return to Iraq of "nationals who do not or no longer fulfil the required conditions for entry, presence or residence in either territory".
Deportation tantamount to re-traumatisation
Up to 10,000 Yazidis are now at risk of deportation to Iraq, according to migration expert Karim Alwasiti of the Refugee Council in Lower Saxony. Most facing possible deportation arrived after 2017 when Germany ruled that Yazidis no longer faced group persecution in Iraq following the territorial defeat of IS. They have not been given asylum in Germany, but the much weaker "tolerated" status.
"They survived genocide and now their livelihoods are once again at stake," says Duzen Tekkal, founder of HAWAR, a German NGO that supports Iraqi refugees. "For many, deportation to Iraq is tantamount to re-traumatisation."
Some 200,000 Yazidis are still displaced, with most living in under-funded camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. Electricity and water are scarce, as are medical care and mental health support.
"Women in the camps face an increased risk of gender-based violence, including sexual assault, domestic violence and forced marriage," says Aya Jalal, project coordinator at Jinda, a Dohuk-based NGO that helps women and girls. "The fear of such incidents can have profound psychological effects on a population that has already experienced so much."
Camp inhabitants mostly come from the devastated Sinjar region and are unable or unwilling to return home. Mass graves, destroyed homes and mines littered across the landscape are reminders of the destruction IS left behind. Since Islamic State was pushed out in 2015, armed groups including the Kurdistan Worker's Party – the target of frequent Turkish airstrikes – and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi have moved in.
After tragedy, new freedoms and opportunities
Historically Iraq's Yazidi community was isolated, under-resourced and very conservative. Seven years after the "Islamic State" tragedy, the community is more open to the world – and Yazidi women are benefitting. By Cathrin Schaer
A 2020 agreement signed by Baghdad and Erbil called for the clearing out of armed groups and the creation of a 2500-strong security force in Iraq's Sinjar has yet to be implemented. "We have many families who returned to Sinjar, but are now back living in the camps as the areas remain unsafe and unstable," says Aya Jalal.
Lottery-style asylum system
Germany's lottery-style asylum system allows each state to make its own decisions on deportation. North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia have banned the deportation of Yazidi women and children until April 2024, though Yazidi men can still be sent back.
Berlin, the state in which Fehima and her family are based, also has a temporary ban in place which ends this month. There is, as yet, no word on what will happen next.
Other states have taken a more hardline stance. In Bavaria, which is run by a coalition of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-right Free Voters of Bavaria (FW), a Yazidi family of four, including two young children, was recently forced to return to Iraq. Two older daughters training to become nursing assistants were allowed to remain in Germany for now. They too have tolerated status and are afraid of being returned to Iraq.
Deportation flights to Iraq have steadily increased since last fall. Without a full national ban, Yazidis in Germany face the constant threat of being forced back into the fire. "In Iraq, there is no future for Yazidis and no future for our children," Fehima says, cradling her one-year-old child. "I would rather die in Germany than live in Iraq."
© Qantara.de 2024