Yazidis hail plan for Canadian haven
DOHUK, Iraq — Canada’s promise to resettle hundreds of Yazidis by the end of the year is being welcomed in Iraq, where Yazidi women and girls have endured horrific abuse and persecution at the hands of Islamic State.
Among those who have greeted the news with open arms is Saud Khalid, who was kidnapped by the terrorist group in August 2014 and sold as a sex slave three times before escaping after a year in captivity.
United Nations officials recently interviewed the 23-yearold about going to Canada, and she said she’s hoping she and her young son will be among the 1,200 Yazidis and other Islamic State survivors accepted by the federal government.
“We wish to go and live in Canada because here our situation is not good in general,” she said through a translator on Wednesday. “We live in bad conditions and we want to go.
“If they take me to Canada, I will never come back. And my hope is if my relatives still being held by Islamic State, if they escape, I want them to also join me in Canada.”
The government’s plan was also welcomed by Dr. Luma Alhanabadi, who runs Dohuk Girls and Women Treatment and Support Centre, which is partly funded by Canada.
Initially opposed to resettlement for fear that survivors would face significant barriers abroad, Alhanabadi says she now supports the idea and recently submitted applications for 15 survivors to go to Canada.
Three others left for Canada this week.
Alhanabadi, whose centre offers gynecological services, counselling, therapy and legal services for about 900 Islamic State survivors, said her change of heart on resettlement came after 210 survivors went to Germany.
There they were able to finally find peace despite the language differences and an unfamiliar culture. “Even without any therapy sessions, they feel good,” she said of those who went to Germany. “So now I’ve changed my mind.”
The UN declared last year that the Yazidis were the victims of genocide after Islamic State fighters invaded their territory in northern Iraq in August 2014. Thousands of people were captured, with the men often killed and women sold into slavery.
Yazidi survivors are considered among the most vulnerable people in Iraq, which is why Canada and other countries are offering to take them in.
Many women have lost their husbands or families and are trying to provide for children while living in camps with limited electricity and other services.
Gertrude Mubiru, head of the UN Population Fund office in Dohuk, which supports the treatment centre, said she was happy Canada was stepping up to help those in need.
Khalid was one of three Yazidi women who sat down with the Canadian Press to talk about the horrors they experienced after being captured.
Each story was similar as the women recalled trying to flee when Islamic State attacked the town of Sinjar, only to be captured, separated from their families and forced to convert to Islam before being sold into slavery.
Suham Haji, 22, was sold to six Islamic State fighters and tried to kill herself three times before she and her young son could escape after a year in captivity.
Haji, whose husband is still missing, was interviewed by the UN to resettle in Australia.
Now she and her son live with her in-laws at one of the many camps for internally displaced people scattered around Dohuk, waiting for her husband to return and a call that will take her somewhere else.
Samira Hasan, 23, lived in captivity with her two young cousins. She talks about how an Islamic State commander gave her to one of his fighters like a prize.
A family friend was eventually able to smuggle her and her cousins out of Islamic State territory. Like the others, she arrived at the Dohuk support centre without any hope for the future, but now hopes to come to Canada.
The Yazidis are a Kurdishspeaking minority who lived mainly in northern Iraq before their territory was invaded.
They practise an ancient religion that combines combines aspects of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.